Today (Saturday) I am making my first visit of the 2013/14 season to Kingsmeadow in London. My club AFC Wimbledon are taking on Torquay who are languishing one from bottom of League 2, just above Northampton. I hope the Dons will build on their success of last week which followed a run of close defeats or draws. AFC Wimbledon are 14th in the table at the moment. On the way from Birmingham last night (Friday), the train stopped momentarily at Milton Keynes Central station but thankfully it was soon on its way out of Franchise town! I lunched in the hospitality suite before the game.
AFC Wimbledon 0 Torquay United 2
A very disappointing first half (last 15 minutes of) but better signs with a different formation in 2nd half. Good support for Torquay (400). They managed to make their presence felt and went away very happy with three points secured. A small section of Dons fans booed the team as they went in at half time having conceded two sloppy goals in the 15 minutes before the break. Very bad defence let in the second goal certainly. Back to the drawing board by manager Neil Ardley and a consideration of a fresh formation as the first half line-up did not work (albeit with the late withdrawal of Harry Pell).
Category Archives: SPORT
TYDAVNET’S TERRY CAVANAGH
Terry Cavanagh
Congratulations to Tydavnet’s Terry Cavanagh whose entrepreneurial skills have been recognised by the prestigious Forbes magazine. The County Monaghan native, now based in London, is one of five Irishmen (another being the golfer Rory McElroy from Holywood, County Down) who have been included in their annual ’30 under 30′ worldwide list. There is a montage picture of these ‘young men to watch’ in today’s Irish Times and it looks like Rory’s golf club is hitting Terry on his back somewhere around the shoulder! By coincidence Terry’s parents and aunt were with me in Holywood walking along a short section of the North Down coastal path on New Year’s Day. Terry was included because of his expertise as a video games developer (products such as Super Hexagon and VVVVV). The company he founded is Distractionware. He was home in Tydavnet for Christmas and the New Year.
Five Irish in Forbes ’30 under 30′ Photomontage from The Irish Times
I started writing about Terry over three years ago when he won a video games ‘Oscar’ for his game VVVVV at the Indiecade festival for independent game develpers in Los Angeles. So here’s a blog I published in October 2010, shortly after my retirement from RTÉ News:
Congratulations to Terry Cavanagh from Tydavnet in County Monaghan on winning an award at the Indiecade showcase for video games in Los Angeles (Culvert City). The game he developed VVVVVV won the most fun and compelling game at the festival. This is how I described his success in the Northern Standard :
“A Monaghan man has achieved international recognition in the computer games world for developing the most fun and compelling video game. Terry Cavanagh from Tullyvogey in Tydavnet picked up the prize at a festival in Los Angeles for independent games creators.
A former pupil of St Macartan’s College in Monaghan, has been making games since he was at school. He moved to the university city of Cambridge in England six months ago as he said he felt isolated in Dublin where there was no “indie scene”.
This award is an important breakthrough for him in a market that is dominated by global companies. Another game developed by him has also proved popular, Don’t Look Back. He has been described by one trade journal as “one of the industry’s brightest up-and-coming independent developers”.
His game VVVVVV was one of 32 games short-listed by 160 international jurors from over 350 submissions in the annual international festival of independent games (IndieCade) held at Culver City outside Los Angeles. It’s the main showcase for independent games developers from around the world, where they can meet collaborators and investors. 
While established companies measure their budgets in millions, independents have to raise their own capital, sometimes putting their life savings into projects in the hope of creating a global success.
Terry found it was difficult at first to get financial support for this type of work and was unsuccessful in seeking enterprise funding in Monaghan. But that did not deter him and having arranged a bank loan he was able to embark on his creative projects. He can now boast that his creation is the most fun and compelling computer game on the market this year.
In the game, players imagine themselves as the fearless leader of a team of dimension-exploring scientists, who are separated after inadvertently crashing their ship.
VVVVVV uses smart, interesting puzzles and a strong world and environment, supported by simple visual design combined with awesome music.
The IndieCade festival helps to encourage innovation in interactive media. It includes games producers from Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America and other countries.
News of Terry’s success in LA delighted his parents in Tydavnet. Peter, a retired Garda, and Patricia, a former psychiatric nurse, were proud he had won his own “Oscar” in what is a very competitive industry.”
LAGAN STREAM
McConnell Weir, River Lagan, Belfast Photo: © Michael Fisher
Having gone into the city centre to tax my car just after New Year’s Day, I decided I would do some walking. I was in the regenerated Gasworks site so I went over towards the Halifax building, under the railway bridge taking trains in and out of the not-so-Central Station, and joined the path alongside the River Lagan, where there is also a cycle lane. The path goes past the remains of the McConnell Weir as far as the Ormeau Bridge, where it is necessary to cross the main road and continue along the footpath beside the embankment, which begins at the Chinese Welfare Association centre.
Ormeau Bridge Photo: © Michael Fisher
The route alongside the river goes past the King’s Bridge, where the Lyric Theatre is situated. There is an underpass for cyclists which can also be used by pedestrians at Governor’s Bridge and the path continues up to Lockview Road and the Cutter’s Wharf pub. The road leads up to the roundabout at Stranmillis College where the first turn on the left is Lockview Road. The entrance to the Lagan Valley Regional Park and the start of the towpath walk alongside the river is just past the car park near the entrance to Belfast Boat Club. The Lagan Canal Trust has ambitious plans for the regeneration of the Lagan from Lough Neagh all the way to Belfast.
River Lagan near Stranmillis Photo: © Michael Fisher
The Lagan Canal offers an opportunity to walk along a forgotten history that helped shape Ulster, encounter wildlife, enjoy peace and tranquillity, and experience this nationally important heritage site. Originally stretching for 27 miles from Lough Neagh to Belfast the Lagan Canal passed through towns and villages transporting goods and materials.
River Lagan near Stranmillis Photo: © Michael Fisher
River Lagan near Stranmillis Photo: © Michael Fisher
River Lagan near Stranmillis Photo: © Michael Fisher
River Lagan near Stranmillis Photo: © Michael Fisher
River Lagan near Stranmillis Photo: © Michael Fisher
FAREWELL 2013
Michael Fisher was a volunteer at the World Police and Fire Games in NI 2013
In wishing readers a Happy New Year for 2014 I would like to thank everyone who has looked at my blog during 2013. I have tried to do an article every day but unfortunately slipped a bit in the last two months. However the success of yesterday’s blog on the Miss-Fitts has given me a few ideas about the sort of story to attract more readers in 2014. I set myself a target of getting 100 views a day and ended the year with an average of 77 daily. My posts have now received over 28,000 views in 110 countries around the world, mainly in the United Kingdom (50%), Ireland and the United States (in that order). My posts on the ice hockey during the World Police and Fire Games when I worked as a volunteer at the Odyssey Arena proved very popular. Keep watching these pages! Remember you can sign up and receive a daily feed of my blog by filling in the form and sending me your email address.
CHRISTMAS SWIM 2013
Emy Lake, Emyvale, Co. Monaghan Photo: © Michael Fisher
A visit to Emy Lake near Emyvale in County Monaghan a year ago provided me with one of the first stories for my daily blog, which I began on January 1st 2013, as well as providing a beautiful photo for the cover page. A nice 4km walk has been developed alongside the lake and the path has been improved so that it is accessible for buggies. Great work done by a dedicated committee of volunteers.
Christmas Day 2013 dip at Emy Lake Photo: © Michael Fisher
This is what I wrote last year: EMY LOUGH SWIM: Congratulations to all who took part in the annual Emy Lough Christmas dip for charity near Emyvale in County Monaghan. Organised by the friends and parents of people with intellectual disability. I spotted Paul Bowe father of the rugby international Tommy who is recovering from injury and also Sammy Leslie from Castle Leslie in nearby Glaslough among the participants. My car temperature said 8C but I’m sure the water was considerably colder, even though the sun shone and it was the mildest such day for the dip in many years.
3-2-1- and they’re off for the Emy Lake dip Photo: © Michael Fisher
After the wind and snow yesterday morning on Christmas Eve (Tuesday), the weather in 2013 was almost better than last year with a good deal of sunshine. This time Tommy Bowe was able to take a dip along with his younger brother David and sister Hannah and their father Paul. Sammy Leslie from nearby Castle Leslie in Glaslough was back again wearing a red Santa top!
Tommy Bowe after his Christmas dip in Emy Lake Photo: © Michael Fisher
Mark Leslie was also there, easy to spot with a Japanese bandana. He was one of two hardy swimmers who swam out as far as a small island in the lake and returned safely to shore, with two volunteers on standby in a rowing boat in case anyone got into difficulty.
Mark Leslie finishes his Christmas Day swim at Emy Lake Photo: © Michael Fisher
The Leslie family have been good supporters of this event which began 41 years ago under the stewardship of scout leader the late Benny McKenna and subsequently the late Garda Sergeant Dan Rogan. Similarly the Bowe family from Inishdevlin.
Mission successful! Samantha Leslie at Emy Lake Photo: © Michael Fisher
Among the supporters there this afternoon for the dip at 1pm was the actress Orla Brady who was staying at Castle Leslie. She is appearing in tonight’s special Christmas episode on BBC1 of Dr Who, in the role of Tasha Lem, a friend of the time traveller.
Orla Brady in Christmas spirit at Emy Lake Photo: © Michael Fisher
Last year I came without any cash so this year I made sure I gave two donations and my daughter who was with me also contributed to this worthy cause. It was a pleasant half hour in very tranquil surroundings and a nice way to spend part of Christmas Day. For more details of the event see www.emyvale.net.
Emy Lake, Emyvale Co. Monaghan Photo: © Michael Fisher
Just to prove I was there: Cameraman Gregory Murphy got a new profile picture of me as I was being interviewed at the lakeside by Peadar McMahon. I had to admit to him it wasn’t as he suggested the Fermanagh colours draped around my neck, but possibly an Ireland emblem (for Tommy Bowe no doubt); then I revealed it was in fact my Shamrock Rovers FC scarf! I added my congratulations to all those hardy people who had decided to take the plunge to support the great work of the Monaghan group, who included some Special Olympics athletes. Well done!
Michael Fisher at the Christmas dip at Emy Lake, Emyvale Photo: © Gregory Murphy
IRELAND BEAT SAMOA
Aviva Stadium (Lansdowne Road) Photo: © Michael Fisher
Rugby: Ireland beat Samoa 40-9 in their first game under the management of Joe Schmidt at Lansdowne Road (Aviva stadium). Tougher games to come against Australia and New Zealand.
Ireland scored five tries, most of them in the second half. Ireland led 14-6 at the break.
BLESSINGBOURNE
Blessingbourne Photo: © Michael Fisher
Blessingbourne near Fivemiletown in County Tyrone and close to the boundary with Fermanagh is a house with an interesting history that is being restored gradually by Colleen and Nick Lowry. One of the initiatives they have taken in order to attract business is to develop in the grounds trails for mountain bikes and for leisure cycling. Last year my daughter living in London came back for a short break and one of the trips she made was to the cycle trail, which she enjoyed. The layout was expanded recently with an investment of £500,000 and I now reproduce this blog from Mountain Bike NI, written by one of The Belles:
“Skinny Latte” At Blessingbourne Anyone?
We were delighted to see The Belles down at the official launch of Blessingbourne Phase II a few weeks ago and even more delighted when Andrea offered to write an open and honest review of the new trails for our MountainBikeNI.com Blog.
Blessingbourne’s new makeover now offers a family-friendly blue trail (4km), pump track and a fast, bermy red trail (8km) full of skinnies, rollers and rock drops which will take many by surprise! Read on to hear how Andrea and the rest of The Belles faired on this gem of a trail centre in Fivemiletown…
Now, since Blessingbourne opened its debut trails in June 2011, you have always been guaranteed a fantastically friendly pre / post ride coffee and chat, but now you can have a “Skinny Latte” of different sorts – given that is the name of one of the new trails on the extended network of routes.
The new trails now mean that this wonderful estate boasts a pump track, 4km of blue trail and 8km of red trail – and the fabulous variety with the extended trail network certainly satisfies all levels of rider.
The technical new additions include log rides, rock drops, table tops and berms – quite a few of which are not for the faint hearted, and certainly for the young at heart. Kids really do have no fear!
Perhaps the new trails should come with a noise-ometer? The whoops of kids as they hit the new berms for the first time are a joy to be heard! Not to mention the whoops of the “big” kids as they over and over again bomb down “Berming Rubber”. Now who wouldn’t want a “Skinny Latte” shortly after “Berming Rubber”??!!
One of the many remarkable things about Blessingbourne is that even without notable gradients, the extended trails certainly provide a real work out. Moreover, without being aware of gaining much height, there are a couple of extremely fast descending sections that give a real buzz!
Blessingbourne’s most noteworthy feature is its ambience, at the heart of which is owners Colleen and Nick.
Whether you’re there for a half-day, full day or an overnight break, the superb trail centre they have created provides a “getaway from it all” feel. The spins and downtime live long in the memory, perhaps every so often also having a visible reminder from one or two spills along the trails!
What’s that saying? If you don’t fall off, you’re not trying hard enough? Either that, or you lost your balance on a log ride!
Next up for Andrea and her Belles is hopefully the Race Across America! One the most respected and longest running endurance sports events in the world, the RAAM inlcudes 3000 miles of cycling across 12 states, 88 counties and 350 communities ascending over 170,000 vertical feet.
The Belles are seeking financial and commercial support to actually have a chance of making the start line in June 2014. They have key leads with media contacts with a view to TV publicity and would love to hear from local companies interested in getting on board. Check out the Belles Facebook Page or on Twitter @BellesOutdoor
PLOUGH LANE PLANS
Jim White in the Daily Telegraph reports today (September 27th 2013) on the plan by AFC Wimbledon to return to the club’s spiritual home in the London Borough of Merton:
Wimbledon FC Crest
“This week AFC Wimbledon began the process to build a new stadium. The fan-owned club, fourth in League Two, announced their intention to construct a new home on the site of Wimbledon’s greyhound stadium. What makes the plan particularly poignant for those who founded the club 10 years ago is that the new building will be just 250 yards down the road from the old Plough Lane ground where Wimbledon FC plied their trade for 79 years before they were notoriously sold into exile.
“Standing in this place, talking about building a stadium here is incredible,” says Eric Samuelson, AFC Wimbledon’s chief executive. “From where we came, now to go back and have an address at Plough Lane, there’s no other word: this is romantic. We are completing the circle. What a story this is.”
AFC Wimbledon Chief Executive Eric Samuelson Photo: © Michael Fisher
Not that romance is the first thing that springs to mind when surveying the site. Across the dishevelled car park from where Samuleson is speaking, a pop-up market is in place. Shouty traders are attempting to flog tired-looking office furniture from the back of transit vans. A row has broken out about the best position, and shouts echo across the scuffed tarmac.
The greyhound stadium itself, a fading hodgepodge of tumbledown stands, looks so unkempt, so flimsy, if the row gets any louder you fear the noise might open up cracks along its grubby side. Yet, while it might not look much, this is a place with huge emotional resonance for many thousands of Wimbledon fans who helped establish the country’s most successful football start up. Not least because it stands right in the heart of the community from which the club sprung.
“My wife always says to me when I can’t find something, go back to the place you last saw it,” says Samuelson. “That’s what we’ve done. This is where it all started.”
In many ways AFC’s story began the moment the old Wimbledon FC vacated Plough Lane in 1991. The club’s owners sold the ground for a development of flats. Unfortunately they had not secured a better place to go. So began 10 years of peripatetic ground-sharing which ultimately led to the decision to transfer the club to Milton Keynes, the theft that encouraged disgruntled fans to form AFC in 2002.
Which makes you wonder, if sourcing a site for a new stadium was what caused more than a decade of trauma, why did no one think of using the extensive spaces of the greyhound stadium next door before? “They did,” says Samuleson. “I believe there was an attempt to groundshare with the dog track when they were still in Plough Lane. But it was never practical.”
What changed things was that the site was bought by developers Galliard Homes. They believed the best way to use what is a large, albeit shambolic area was to build a new sporting stadium in its core, fringed by a housing development. It went into partnership with AFC and has now submitted a report to the council to suggest the site be designated as ideal for this purpose.
If the independent inspectors agree and the council adopts the idea, the club will then apply for planning permission for an 11,000-seat stadium, with the potential to rise to 20,000. It will cost some £16 million.
“We’re a very prudent operation. We don’t want to put ourselves into hock. But we’re confident we can do it,” says Samuelson of the cost. The naming rights will be valuable, we’re putting in place foundations for a share ownership plan, we will make some money from the enabling development. Yes, we can do it.”
More than that, Samuelson believes they must do it. Not just because the club’s 4,100-capacity home in Kingston is too small to meet their ambitions. But because a return to Wimbledon is central to their founding ethos: after all it was the abrupt eviction from home that led them to be formed in the first place.
“About 18 months ago, we did extensive fan consultation about what should be our core aims,” he says. “The two biggest things that emerged were: one to stay in fan ownership; and secondly go back to Wimbledon.”
And though any redevelopment will inevitably lead to the end of dog racing on the site, AFC’s man insists that the new project will be of huge benefit to the local area.
“This will be a community asset, with dozens of things from street gyms to entertainment suites that people will want to use every day of the week. It will transform this part of the borough. It will make everyone proud. When we play another well-known fan-owned club in our first game in our new stadium, I’ll be fit to burst. Yes, it will be great to welcome Barcelona here.”
In the London borough of Merton, football is about to come home.”
AFC Wimbledon at Kingsmeadow, Norbiton Photo: © Michael Fisher
However Dublin businessman Paschal Taggart has a different vision for the dilapidated greyhound stadium. He knows how significant the greyhound industry is, particularly in Ireland and has been lobbying greyhound breeders and trainers for support for his vision for a 21st Century dog track and a modern Wimbledon Stadium with many of the same community facilities such as a gym that Eric Samuelson speaks about.
Mr Taggart gave an interview last weekend to Philip Connolly of the Sunday Business Post, based in Dublin, another very influential newspaper. It has reported extensively about the state-owned (Irish) National Asset Management Agency, which effectively has the major say in the future of the Plough Lane site. So I am reprinting Mr Taggart’s comments here.
“Irish businessman Paschal Taggart’s bid to develop a €37 million greyhound racing stadium, on a site in London effectively owned by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), has been put under pressure from a rival bid by AFC Wimbledon. AFC Wimbledon last week submitted an outline of its plans to develop a stadium at Plough Lane, as the club seeks to return to its traditional home. Nama holds the debt on Plough Lane, which is currently occupied by a greyhound racing stadium.
Taggart, a former chairman of Bord na gCon, the greyhound racing board, remains confident that his plan to redevelop the site and build a new greyhound stadium with a capacity for 6,000 spectators is the most viable.
“I don’t see us being beaten, but that could be famous last words,” Taggart told The Sunday Business Post. “It will always come down to the best bid, and we intent to submit the best one.”
Taggart, who chaired Bord na gCon from 2000 to 2006, submitted plans to Merton Council for the €37 million track at Plough Lane, but since expressed concern about his bid to retain a greyhound racing stadium in Wimbledon.
In a letter to newspapers earlier this summer, Taggart expressed his concern over the support behind the return of AFC Wimbledon to the Plough Lane area, but less obvious support behind the greyhound stadium and the plans that go with it.
AFC are working with Galliard Homes, which also wants to develop housing on the site, to win approval for an 11,000-seater football stadium. According to Taggart, a lease deal struck earlier this year between Nama and Galliard Homes has no effect on his plan and he has not given up on his bid for the stadium.
The council and local mayor’s office could decide the fate of the site early next year, which could result in Nama selling the site shortly afterward. Taggart has indicated his willingness to buy the site from Nama at market value.
The old Wimbledon Dons moved away from Plough Lane before the start of the 1991-92 season to share the Selhurst Park ground with Crystal Palace, before relocating to Milton Keynes in 2003 – a controversial move which took the team from London, where they had been based since their foundation in 1889, to Milton Keynes, about 90 kilometres from their original home. They were also renamed MK Dons, much to the anger of most of their original supporter, who formed AFC Wimbledon in 2002 as a “phoenix club” protest. AFC began in the ninth tier of English football, but are now only one division below MK Dons.” (Sunday Business Post, Sunday 22nd September 2013)
PLOUGH LANE
HOW AFC WIMBLEDON, NAMA, IRISH GREYHOUNDS, A DUBLIN BUSINESSMAN AND MERTON COUNCIL WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE OF PLOUGH LANE IN LONDON SW19
Old SW19 road sign from the days of Wimbledon FC
Wimbledon might be known internationally for tennis. But the area also came to fame through the achievements of Wimbledon Football Club. Plough Lane used to be their home. Now the original pitch is a housing development, a bit like Glenmalure Park in Milltown, former home of Shamrock Rovers FC. Durnsford Road (where the main entrance was) is where I saw the Dons play in their days as an amateur team (I began to watch them around 1963 when they won the Amateur Cup), as semi-professionals in the Southern League and eventually as a football league side rising to the first division and winning the FA Cup. The club survived there until 1991 when they entered a ground-sharing arrangement with Crystal Palace that lasted until 2003 in order to comply with a new FA rule on all-seater stadia.
Plough Lane Gates Photo: Cliftonian via Wiki CC Licence
In the closing stages of Wimbledon FC at Selhurst I remember talking to the owner Sam Hammam about a suggestion that he was considering moving the club to Dublin (even Belfast was mentioned at one stage). Some Irish businessmen and at least one prominent soccer commentator were very supportive of such a move.
Wimbledon FC Crest
You can read more about the ‘Dublin Dons’ in Donal Fallon’s Come Here to Me blog here. In the end FIFA opposed such a move and the FA gave approval to transport the club, not abroad, but sixty miles away to a franchise in Milton Keynes, which now plays in League 1, one division above the new Wimbledon.
Sam Hammam Photo: © Glenn Copus / Evening Standard /Rex Features
Plough Lane is also the site of another sports venue, Wimbledon Stadium. I remember going to watch speedway there. It is also the last remaining dog track in London, which had 33 greyhound stadia in the 1940s, and home to the William Hill Greyhound Derby, which always attracts a lot of Irish interest. I should add that although I never went to a dog meeting at Plough Lane, I have been a spectator at greyhound races in Ireland and have generally enjoyed such events. Indeed I have been at the stadium at Dundalk, which was opened on a greenfield site in 2003 (with an all-weather horse racing track added later) by the Irish Greyhound Board (Bord na gCon) when the businessman Paschal Taggart was the Chairman. It replaced an older stadium that closed in 2000.
Chief Executive AFC Wimbledon Erik Samuelson Photo: © Michael Fisher
Fast forward a decade and now we have a new club AFC Wimbledon based at Kingsmeadow in Norbiton but proposing to move back to their spiritual home in Merton. The outline plans for a new stadium seating 11,000 with potential to upgrade later to 20,000 have been fine tuned over the past year and have just been submitted to Merton Council. The football club’s preferred location is now known to be the greyhound track, beside the original home of the Dons at Plough Lane. The Club’s Chief Executive Erik Samuelson has explained how the proposals have taken a significant step forward. He also cautions supporters that there is a long way to go before the Dons’ plans become a reality.
Sketches for a new greyhound track at Wimbledon Picture: Irish Post
However there is a separate proposal which has come from a consortium led by the Dublin-based businessman and greyhound enthusiast Paschal Taggart, who I referred to earlier. He has proposed a new greyhound stadium on the current site, with a squash club and gym etc.. He also points out that the (Irish) National Asset Management Agency NAMA will have a major say in any future development. So once again, Dublin comes into the equation when the development of our now community-owned football club in London is to be decided. Wimbledon was one of six greyhound tracks acquired by Risk Capital Partners from the Greyhound Racing Association in a £50m deal financed by Irish Nationwide. So because of the source of the loan the Stadium’s short term future has been determined by NAMA. The state agency in Dublin granted a five year lease for the Wimbledon track in July to a management team.
Paschal Taggart Photo: Irish Post
Paschal Taggart in a letter in July published by the Greyhound Owners’ Breeders’ and Trainers’ Association urged supporters to continue to lobby Merton Council. He told them bluntly: “NOW IS THE TIME FOR GREYHOUND PEOPLE TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED if they believe that Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium is important to the UK and Irish greyhound industries“. Note the way he is appealing (quite legitimately) to breeders and trainers on this side of the Irish Sea. He was also playing the Irish card by saying in an Irish Post interview earlier this month that “many members of the Irish community around South London, and further afield, would be affected if alternative plans by the football club AFC Wimbledon to move back to the club’s former home were granted by Merton Council“. He has also been quite disparaging about our club, referring to AFC Wimbledon as a “Mickey Mouse football team” in an interview in July with the Irish Times.
It should be stated that the AFC Wimbledon pIan has been submitted to the Council in conjunction with Galliard Homes which wants to develop 600 houses. Galliard Homes is a co-owner of the Wimbledon Stadium site with GRA Ltd whose parent company is the investment company Risk Capital. Galliard and the GRA are also at the centre of a row over a proposed housing development to replace the greyhound track at Oxford, which was closed down by the operator at the end of last year and has now been declared by the local Council to have heritage asset status. Paschal Taggart expressed an interest in rescuing the Oxford stadium in February and also indicated his support for a return of speedway, according to the Oxford Mail.
The Plough Lane site has been designated for “sporting intensification” and is the subject of a draft sites and policies document by Merton Council. The document, which outlines planning regulations for all sites in Wimbledon, will be subject to a public inquiry led by an independent inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. A final report will be given in early 2014 at which point the Council will adopt the plan allowing formal applications for the site to be accepted.
Can soccer and greyhounds be combined? My local dog track at Ballyskeagh near Lisburn serves also as a soccer stadium. Lisburn Distillery from the Irish League Belfast Telegraph Championship 1 division have a stand and social club on one side of the ground at what they call New Grosvenor stadium (Distillery FC used to be based in the Grosvenor Road area of Belfast until 1971, so their name and their history has been retained in their new setting from 1980 and in the new title from 1999). The main drawback I found when I attended a Setanta Cup game there against UCD (and I was one of the handful of College supporters present!) was that the pitch seemed quite a distance from the spectators, because of the width of the dog track. There is a similar situation at the Brandywell where Derry City (a former club of Wimbledon legend Eddie Reynolds) play in the Airtricity League of Ireland.
New Grosvenor Stadium looking across towards greyhound side Photo: © Michael Fisher
If you go to the dogs, you enter Drumbo Park and can have the benefit of all the bar and restaurant facilities in the purpose-built stand, opened in 2008. I have not yet been there but maybe I will get the chance to take a look at the set-up in the near future. The whole ground can accommodate 8,000. This article from Wikipedia gives a description of how the two sporting interests go about their business almost in separate worlds but using the same plot of land:-
“The two organisations …co-exist on an icy basis of minimal co-operation and do not offer their facilities to each other’s events or co-operate in offering spectator packages for combined events. Indeed Drumbo Park has placed a dress code ban on the wearing of football related clothing in its stand. The nature of the two markets the Football Club and Greyhound Stadium are aiming at is also quite different. New Grosvenor Stadium is aimed at the traditional football fan and promotes itself as a family day out to the local Lisburn market whereas Drumbo Park caters for the hen party, stag night, office party and couples night out market aiming its advertising at the whole of the UK and Ireland. Both operators recognise that there is little cross-over in their respective markets and as a result have made no attempt to offer combined marketing packages.
There is only minimal infringement by one organisation’s events over the other’s as Greyhound racing is traditionally an evening event while Football is traditionally reserved for afternoons. Drumbo Park are restricted however to hosting meetings on Thursday-Saturday evenings only as Lisburn Distillery play many evening fixtures on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while the Irish League also occasionally stage Monday night games for television purposes, though, as of 2010, Lisburn have yet to feature in a live Monday night game. Conversely Lisburn Distillery have been unable to try out a switch to Friday evening Football as some other Irish League teams have done in a bid to increase attendances owing to the Greyhound Friday night meet.”
I write this as a season ticket holder and a founder member of AFC Wimbledon in 2002 via the Dons Trust, when the club started off in the Combined Counties League.
WPFG: BELFAST GIANTS
Todd Kelman of the Belfast Giants doing the quiz Photo: © Michael Fisher
The World Police and Fire Games said thank you to its volunteers by offering them free seats at a recent pre-season friendly match involving the Belfast Giants and Bolzano/Bozen Foxes from Südtirol in Italy.
DCAL MInister Carál Ní Chuilín throws in the puck Photo: Michael Fisher
The Stormont Department of Culture and Sport paid for the tickets and the Minister Carál Ní Chuilín threw in the puck at the face-off. The giveaway was organised through Todd Kelman, General Manager of the Giants. He had been co-ordinator for the ice hockey at the WPFG event and thanks to his enthusiasm and a great team of volunteers which I was delighted to be part of, over 52,000 people passed through the Odyssey to see the various matches in the space of a fortnight.
The previous night had been a special one for Todd as the number 44 jersey he had worn with distinction as a player with the Giants was officially retired. It was the sixth jersey retirement in the Giants’ history. Todd wore the no.44 jersey on 419 occasions for the Giants across eight seasons and retired from on-ice duties as the all-time leader in games played as well as the leading scoring defenceman in the team’s history with 73 goals and 141 assists. He stopped playing to take up the role of General Manager over seven years ago and since then the Giants have won all 4 major titles up for grabs in the Elite League winning the Knock Out Cup and Challenge Cup in 2009, the playoff title in 2010 and the Elite League Title in 2012.
Todd Kelman, Belfast Giant Photo © Michael Fisher
Todd Kelman spoke about the honour:-
“It is my pleasure to be your General Manager of your wonderful city and I’m happy to now call it mine & my family’s city. Belfast has been very good to me and I love the people here. It is only right to thank one very important person – Jim Gillespie. Without Jim’s influence on me and giving me this job, I certainly would not be where I am today. More importantly without Jim Gillespie there would be no Belfast Giants.”
Michael Fisher as announcer at the Odyssey during WPFG 2013
Thank you Todd for taking me and the other volunteers and games officials under your wing and allowing us to experience the thrills and spills of ice hockey. Some volunteers had never been to see a match before the police and fire games started; others like me had seen the Giants in action on a couple of occasions; then there was the experienced team of volunteers, many of whom I met back on duty at the Odyssey over the weekend. It was also a chance to see the Giants’ mascot Finn McCool back in action on the ice during the ‘chuck a puck’.
Finn McCool in action Photo: Michael Fisher
Belfast Giants huddle before game Photo: © Michael Fisher
Belfast Giants won 2-1 with a goal after 25 seconds of overtime. The first and second periods were scoreless. The Giants went ahead and then the Foxes equalised so at the end of normal time it was 1-1. The Giants had won the previous night 6-3.
Bolzano/Bozen Foxes check the goal area! Photo: © Michael Fisher
Michael Fisher's News 