Full marks to the Premier Inn at South Mimms which was up there with the best that we have stayed at. It was pleasing that Ben could join us for dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary or was it to celebrate Barack Obama's 50th birthday?
The Underhill Stadium at Barnet is one of the remaining football grounds that has a noticeable slope and they were more than happy to take us pitch side but with the usual health warning about not setting foot on the pitch otherwise you would be visited by the Wrath of Everything. They were preparing for a Ghanain festival and a visit from the Ghana national team at which some 3,500 people would attend. The Barnet commercial manager was hoping to sell them all a season ticket I think even the national team members.
From the team that almost lost their league status we moved on to the team that nearly made it into The Champions League places Tottenham Hotspur. No such warm welcome there. The Security had obviously taken a wrong turning out of bed this morning and issued a stern 'Thou shalt not pass'as we tried to breach the perimeter fence. Had we known that we would be met with such resistance we could have tried some diversion tactics which would have allowed us to use stealth to get within reach of the stadium. We had to settle for a photograph which certainly wins the prize for the furthest away from the stadium category.
Arsenal, the biggest nearly club in the world, must have been very busy contemplating what it might nearly win this forthcoming season to extend any sort of invitation to us other than the use of the toilet facilities, this after the manageress at the Fitness First located at the old Arsenal Stadium at Highbury had refused to allow toilet use without showing a membership card for Fitness First. We ticked the Arsenal box and moved on.
Leyton Orient, the club chaired by snooker and darts promoter Barry Hearn, greeted us warmly and took us pitch side again with the warning of the visitation of demons should we set foot on the green and pleasant land. The League One side still has an old style stand with uprights of the sort that makes people complain that they can't see the game very well. That stand was given to Orient many years ago by a local dog track which is the reason behind the club crest not being over the halfway line. The only place it could be located was at the point of the old finish line of the dog track and as a result it has been off centre at Orient since it was erected.
From the O's we moved on to the Daggers (Dagenham and Redbridge FC) but not before we enjoyed a brief lunch stop at the Orange Cafe in London E11. Good paninis with good salads. We meandered our way to our final stop of the day. Dagenham High St is an interesting place for wildlife. It must have the highest population per square mile of fighting dogs in the UK but that was topped as I observed a young lady carrying her pet ferret!
Promoted to the League in the last decade from the Conference the stadium has to qualify for the longest name of a stadium of all that we have visited. The snappy title of 'The London Borough of Redbridge and Dagenham Stadium' or was it 'The London Borough of Dagenham and Redbridge Stadium' who knows as I lost the will to read after the 'of'.
We fully expected to be told that Daggers would be used as the weapon of choice if we strayed on to the pitch but no, a photo on the pitch was more than acceptable. Inevitably that has to be the choice of photo for today as we finally achieved standing on the pitch at our 41st club.
The short trip to the Premier Inn at Beckton saw us complete our trip for the day at 38.7 miles and and running total of 612.2. Tomorrow we visit a massive 8 clubs which is the busiest day of the trip and that takes us into the the final minutes of normal time.
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