??? Brighton v Vics ???

[pasty]

4) FODDER
a What is the food/ drink like AT the ground?

Bring your own forks.

 

[northwicha]

Most grateful for all the answers tho it`ll be a bu99er to edit down come the programme deadline!

 

[The Large One]

1a. 7,415 v Leeds United. Pathetic, isn't it? We won of course - we always do against them.

Edit: Bloody TGC site, not updated to include Southampton game.

1b. Its mere existence.

1c. You wouldn't believe it, but we won the Division Three Championship here in 2001. Then stone me if we didn't go and win the Division Two Championship the following year. You can't trust anyone these days with the phrase 'mid-table consolidation', can you?

1d. 'Playing' is a rather flexible verb. But we've occupied the site since August 1999.

1e. Brighton & Hove City Council. Formerly a zoo until the 1950s (no, really), it became an athletics arena, and still is. The Albion's presence at Withdean pisses the athletics club off no end - the ungrateful tossers.

1f. Sometime after the apocalypse. Or, if we're lucky, until around 2009. Depends whether we firebomb Lewes District Council offices next March.

1g. FOUR SIDES? Bloody luxury.

1h. Pitch is fine, but I will say this - we won our back-to-back championships on a donkey swamp. Then we employed a groundsman. Tcha, bloody typical.

2a. Sold for profit and greed behind our backs, and is now a retail park. With any luck, it is currently sinking at a rate of 60mm per annum.

2b. See 1d. But we were booted out in April 1997.

2c. Read 'Build A Bonfire'. Go on, read it.

3a. There won't be ANY parking at the ground, so don't bother your arse trying.

3b. A handful of pubs within a 10 minute walk of Withdean. Faiilng that, conserve your energy for a blistering night out in the wildest, swingiest city in Britain. More pubs with proper beer (rather than fizzy piss), clubs, funky people and shit-hot chicks than you can shake anything at. Both your wallet and your sphincter will need a basin load of TLC the following day, but it will all be worth it. Really.

4a. Shite and piss. In and out.

4b. Chippy? Far too common. Fajita and lentil puy to go if you don't mind.

4c. Near to ground. Hmm, not a great choice. In the city - HUNDREDS. Fat too many to list, but a choice selection would be Evening Star, Basketmakers, Lord Nelson, Battle of Trafalgar which are all near to Brighton Station (even though Withdean isn't). West Street if you like cattle markets, and Kemp Town (east of the City Centre) for the aforementioned sphincter-knackering games. Did you know Brighton has over 900 licensed premises? True.

4d. The Brewery Tap and the Crown & Anchor (3/4 mile south of Withdean, 1/4 mile south of Preston Park Station) serves some real ale - the Sportsman on site at Withdean DOES NOT. You have been warned. For decent real ale pubs, see answer 4c.

 

[Northstander]

Re: Re: Brighton v Vics

Bring your own forks.

 

[Frutos]

Are you sure?

Am I sure of whether it helps or not?

I guess you'd have to ask the Northwich guy, not me

 

[Northstander]

1a. 7,415 v Leeds United. Pathetic, isn't it? We won of course - we always do against them.

1b. Its mere existence.

1c. You wouldn't believe it, but we won the Division Three Championship here in 2001. Then stone me if we didn't go and win the Division Two Championship the following year. You can't trust anyone these days with the phrase 'mid-table consolidation', can you?

1d. 'Playing' is a rather flexible verb. But we've occupied the site since August 1999.

1e. Brighton & Hove City Council. Formerly a zoo until the 1950s (no, really), it became an athletics arena, and still is. The Albion's presence at Withdean pisses the athletics club off no end - the ungrateful tossers.

1f. Sometime after the apocalypse. Or, if we're lucky, until around 2009. Depends whether we firebomb Lewes District Council offices next March.

1g. FOUR SIDES? Bloody luxury.

1h. Pitch is fine, but I will say this - we won our back-to-back championships on a donkey swamp. Then we employed a groundsman. Tcha, bloody typical.

2a. Sold for profit and greed behind our backs, and is now a retail park. With any luck, it is currently sinking at a rate of 60mm per annum.

2b. See 1d. But we were booted out in April 1997.

2c. Read 'Build A Bonfire'. Go on, read it.

3a. There won't be ANY parking at the ground, so don't bother your arse trying.

3b. A handful of pubs within a 10 minute walk of Withdean. Faiilng that, conserve your energy for a blistering night out in the wildest, swingiest city in Britain. More pubs with proper beer (rather than fizzy piss), clubs, funky people and shit-hot chicks than you can shake anything at. Both your wallet and your sphincter will need a basin load of TLC the following day, but it will all be worth it. Really.

4a. Shite and piss. In and out.

4b. Chippy? Far too common. Fajita and lentil puy to go if you don't mind.

4c. Near to ground. Hmm, not a great choice. In the city - HUNDREDS. Fat too many to list, but a choice selection would be Evening Star, Basketmakers, Lord Nelson, Battle of Trafalgar which are all near to Brighton Station (even though Withdean isn't). West Street if you like cattle markets, and Kemp Town (east of the City Centre) for the aforementioned sphincter-knackering games. Did you know Brighton has over 900 licensed premises? True.

4d. The Brewery Tap and the Crown & Anchor (3/4 mile south of Withdean, 1/4 mile south of Preston Park Station) serves some real ale - the Sportsman on site at Withdean DOES NOT. You have been warned. For decent real ale pubs, see answer 4c.

f***ing Quality!!

 

[Frutos]

Oh, and in the "funny moments" bit, one of our loan goalkeepers (Andy Pratterson) once fell flat on his arse whilst trying to get back into his area when we were losing 3-2 against Gillingham. Very soon after he fell over, we were losing 4-2 against Gillingham.

Not side-splittingly funny, I grant you, but it's the closest thing to funny at Withdean I can think of from the top of my head.

 

[Northstander]

This has got to be GOLD

 

[dougdeep]

You can park near the Brewery Tap pub and stagger to the ground with us. It's on the A23 near the traffic lights.

 

[Gully]

At our old ground one of our games was sponsored by a fanzine called Gulls Eye. They selected (stiffed) one of their sellers, a bloke called Nige Erskine, to be the mascot for the day. Clearly it was as exciting an occasion for Nige, he ran out with the players and headed straight for the North Stand (oop north it is referred to as the popular end, down south that has a totally different connotation), anyway he did a Klinsmann style belly flop in the box. Sadly for Nige his shorts fell down, he stood up waving manically at the home fans and trying to preserve his dignity... that ranks as one of the funniest moments I have seen at a football match.

 

[mona]

Withdean Funny:

Since we moved to Withdean an 81 year old peace campaigner has bought a house overlooking the ground. He has gone to court claiming that the noise is disturbing him and has tried to close down the club. This is funny as Withdean is the quietest ground in the league. Also amusing is the fact that the English legal system allows the old git, Mad John Catt is his name, to do this using legal aid when he owns a house worth £400,000.

Being Brighton fans we are kind and tolerant and have not fire-bombed this spiteful peace-campaigning lunatic.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

- Who owns the complex and what was its purpose-built function?

ANSWER: It's owned by Brighton & Hove City Council, I believe, and was originally intended as an athletics venue (hence the running track).

Adding to that ... at the eastern end of the site there used to be a purpose built tennis stadium, built in the 1930s as a home for Davis Cup matches. It fell into disrepair and was finally demolished in the mid-nineties (before the Albion's tenure), to make way for an extension to the car park to expand capacity for the daily shoppers' park and ride service than runs from Withdean to the City Centre.

The tennis stadium ticket booth is still there, functioning as the point at which matchday tickets can be picked up by people who have bought them too late for them to be posted.




Boring personal footnote ... T'was me who was responsible for drawing up the planning application to demolish the tennis stadium.

 

[Ccider]

1) WITHDEAN
b Any annecdotes/ amusing remarks to share re the Withdean?
We used to have a bloke behind the south stand who set off fireworks when we scored. he stopped when someone got hit by one

I thought he stopped because we stopped scoring goals...

 

[Robot Chicken]

No one's mentioned the Screamer?

 

[Robot Chicken]

...edit for Northwich guy, the Screamer was someone in the South Stand (not sure if it was male or female) who used to let off an ear piercing shriek when there was a corner or free kick in the west end of the ground in an attempt to put off the opposition players.

Used to wind Liz Costa and Sarah Watts right up.

The Screamer has stopped now, unfortunately...

 

[Jesus Gul]

Adding to that ... at the eastern end of the site there used to be a purpose built tennis stadium, built in the 1930s as a home for Davis Cup matches. It fell into disrepair and was finally demolished in the mid-nineties (before the Albion's tenure), to make way for an extension to the car park to expand capacity for the daily shoppers' park and ride service than runs from Withdean to the City Centre.

The tennis stadium ticket booth is still there, functioning as the point at which matchday tickets can be picked up by people who have bought them too late for them to be posted.




Boring personal footnote ... T'was me who was responsible for drawing up the planning application to demolish the tennis stadium.

Remember that - big wooden(?) structure that looked like an out of place corner section of a big ground sat to the east of the site. Pictures anyone?

Boring personal footnote...I was the youngest entrant to get the Coca Cola English Schools Soccer Skills Gold Award at Withdean summer of 1981 - my peers fell by the wayside at Black and Silver after easily completing Blue and Red...and I've still got the badge and certificate!!

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I have a question for you, Northwich....

Is the name Verdin a key name in your area? My family have done a bit of research and apparently my relatives were big players in the salt industry up there. I think the name is spawned from De Vernon....Verdin.

Ps Welcome to the board.

 

[Rusco]

c Have there been any funny/ dramatic incidents at your current ground?

Against Luton at home a few seasons ago, one of our forwards was racing clear up the line when Mike Newell stuck his foot out and tripped him up even though the player was still on the pitch. Newell got sent off and got a nice three match ban for his troubles.

We also had a huge hole appear in the pitch against Hartlepool a few years ago

 

[pasty]

Also, the first ever league goal of the new millenium was scored at Withdean (Darren Freeman? ).

Okay, so we kicked off before anybody else that day so we had an unfair advantage, but who cares about trivialities like that.

 

[attila]

If your favourite pub in Northwich is the Witton Chimes, you'll be really happy anywhere on West Street.

If your favourite pub's the Oddfellows Arms, go to the Evening Star on Surrey Street!

Attila (married to a Northwicha)