Northampton-A football weekend

 Despite Rotherham United being bottom of the table and rubbish, we decided to head to Northampton for an away game in Dame Shirley Bassey. Well, close to Northampton as I couldn’t find a nice site around the Town itself. I did find a nice looking site in Mollington, Oxfordshire, called Anita’s camping and caravan site. 

I took the dogs out as usual on the Friday morning while Ian loaded up, then he jumped in Dame Shirl, and I jumped in my car, and off we went. Basically we needed a car while there to get to the ground and Vicky and Alex were coming too. Vicky would have her car. Perfect. But no, Vicky’s car was broken so they had to come by train. Next in line was Ian’s car. But no, the heating was broken and I had to drive to Barnsley for work clinging to the heated steering wheel for warmth. So my trusty car it was. 

After an uneventful journey we arrived at Anita’s and were warmly welcomed. As you can imagine it was pretty empty in autumn. It is a very nice site with lovely toilets. Ian set about plugging stuff in while I made a sandwich. 

Dame Shirley on pitch G

After lunch we pfaffed with the internet and TV for a while, then did some pub quizzes, then had an afternoon nap (my favourite thing in the world) before I put the Charlie Bingham in for tea.

Another lovely sky

 Having come in my car we needed to fill up and I found, to my immense delight, we are right by an InstVolt superhub. 

I have been eyeing these up for ages. There are rows and rows of electric chargers, all super quick. Plus, usually a Costa, which there was here. We headed for that and Ian plugged us in while I oo’ed and ah’ed. What a place! After setting it off with my app (cheap electric after 8pm if you use the app) we headed for the Costa. Half an hour later Vicky and Alex’s train was arriving and the car was charged. Brilliant! 

The theatre of dreams

I had checked the net to find out where the pick up point was at Banbury station, which you would imagine is tiny. Wrong! Banbury station has three entrances and two pick up points. Due to roadworks we couldn’t even get to the one we had arranged with Vicky so had to guide them out to meet us on Bridge street. 

Back at Dame Shirley we shared a glass of wine, did another quiz, and watched some cycling. Alex loves cycling. Then we retired to our luxurious half of Dame Shirley while Alex got the netting out as Vicky has a morbid fear of falling out of bed!

As this was to be a football awayday we had a small breakfast before heading to Northampton, about 45mins away along tiny roads and dirt tracks. We couldn’t even blame Sir Georgie for this one. We ran over a few baby partridges before emerging onto an A road that led Poppy Field Farm, not a flower shop but a pub near the ground. We had arranged to meet Christine here for a pre match meal as she was headed for the rugby, also nearby. Sadly she was not well and could not join us, but we tucked into Yorkie wraps, a good omen?

A nice yorkie wrap for £7.99! Great value

Christine  had checked if we could leave the car there, but was told no. I decided to give it another go, and was told definitely not. ‘But it’s electric and plugged into the mains’. ‘Oh, in that case, fill your boots!’. Great stuff. We dillied and dallied and ended up walking quite quickly (for me) down to the ground. Alex was leaving us there to go on a 20mile run around the environs of Northampton taking in the beauty spots so we waved him goodbye and set about being frisked for weapons/coffee cup lids (the guy behind had his confiscated!). Once inside we visited the toilets (I refer you back to a league one year in 2018 where I did toilet watch, nothing has changed) then found a seat right behind the net. As you know Vicky is exceedingly worried about the chance of a ball hitting her in the face. This has been exacerbated by a woman behind us getting hit in the face by a wayward shot from Jordan Hugill pre match last week. She ended up with a bloodied nose and two signed shirts, something I tried to point out to Vicky as being a good thing. She was having none of it and spent a lot of the first half in terror. Northampton were shooting our way. 

RUFC fans at Northampton 

We had a great view of the very dodgy penalty awarded to them by Premier League referee Paul Tierney, and it was good to get our lungs going with ‘you’re not fit to ref er ee!’ after Northampton inevitably scored. So 1-0 down at half time and playing rubbish. A standard away performance. 

Second half was a different story though. A couple of substitutions and we were right back in it. Soon it was 1-1 and we were pressing. In the 87th minute we got a free kick on the edge of their area. Vicky went into full panic mode as the shot would surely miss the net and wang her in the nose! We tried to explain trajectories and force, and the fact that row Z was a more likely landing point, or the corner flag. But up stepped Josh Benson and curled a most un Rotherham like free kick into the top corner. Cue delight in the away end and a very relieved Vicky. 

We had won! Away from home! Something I had not seen since Gillingham in 2022. The fans were delirious, the players delighted, and we of course all stayed to cheer our heroes off.

Victory selfie

Well done lads!

Back at the pub Alex was waiting for us with a pint, or a coke for me as I was driving. We discussed the game then headed for the car, now very very fully charged, and set off back to Dame Shirley.

We had a bottle of wine to toast Joe and Josh, then watched a couple of quiz shows and a Hit List (I do like Rochelle and Marvin) before retiring to bed with winning on our mind. What a great day.

On Sunday morning Alex and Vicky were off for a run as Vicky is training for another half marathon. Ian and I took a stroll around the local village, Mollington, which is very quaint with some posh looking houses.

We set foot on the D’Arcy Dalton Way

After Vicky and Alex returned they quickly showered and we headed for the Brasenose Inn in nearby Cropredy for a 2pm Sunday lunch. The food was nice but the wait was ridiculous. We didn’t get our beef till 3.45! We won’t be going there again anytime soon. Afterwards we walked over to Cropredy  Bridge, site of a battle in the Civil War. Nothing to see there so we drove back to Dame Shirley for coffee. We weren’t going to risk ordering it at the pub.

Vicky on her 8 miler run

After coffee it was time for another trip to Banbury station to drop Vicky and Alex off, then we hunkered down to watch the last couple of episodes of Countdown, the Prime series we have been watching. Under no circumstances watch this series! You will thank me for this advice. Then it was off to bed. 

Monday was departure for home day, but we decided on a detour to Kenilworth Castle. I phoned them up just to check if Motorhomes were allowed to park there. The short answer is ‘we do not want your kind here!’ Ok. So I checked the National Trust properties on the way and came up with Packwood House near Solihull. They were very welcoming of ‘Our kind’ so we packed up and called there. We had a look round the house and gardens then a nice lunch in the cafe.

Packwood House

Their Topiary Garden

We departed Packwood and arrived home about the same time after a very successful weekend. 

Well, it was very successful until I came to look for my handbag. It seems it was still hanging on the back of a chair in the cafe at Packwood House necessitating a trip back tomorrow! Idiot!