Tokyo Daytripper: Yokohama Yamate Museum Of Tennis

Posted on February 1, 2015 by tokyofox

The first Grand Slam of the 2015 tennis season has concluded and we’ve witnessed two fantastic finals contested by four great players but ultimately it was Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic who deservedly reigned supreme against Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray respectively. As a fellow Brit I was naturally rooting for Murray in a final which was so closely fought in the first two sets in particular. One other guy I’ve been following quite closely at the Australian Open has been Japan’s Kei Nishikori and at one stage I was even thinking the U.S. Open finalist may get to the final for a rare face-off against Murray. However, he fell a little short this time round and lost in straight sets in the quarter finals.

Nishikori is very much part of modern-day tennis in Japan and one might think the sport is relatively new to these shores but it actually has a history dating back way over a hundred years. The ridiculously named Ariake Collosseum in Odaiba may be the contemporary heart of Japanese tennis as that’s where the major Japan tournaments on the seasons calendar take place. However, the true origins of tennis belong in Yokohama and whilst my wife and I were wandering the bluff area last December we came across the small Yamate Museum of Tennis.

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Entry is free and one of the first things to catch my eye was the Wimbledon ladies Championship brass replica plate which was won a record nine times by Martina Navratilova (USA) but was last won by a Brit in 1977 when Virginia Wade won it.

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There is a section showing the history of women’s tennis attire explaining the evolution of the outfits from long skirts and hard collar blouses with ribbons on their sleeves and flower-decorated bonnets (end of 19th century) to rolled up sleeves (1904) and sleeveless one piece dresses and bandanas (1919). All very different and a world apart from the modern era where shorts skirts, all-in-one spandex catsuits, visible knickers, exposed midriffs, lace dresses and so on have donned the courts.

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The museum also explains about the popularisation of tennis in Yokohama and its growth around Japan. In 1878 the land in Yamate park was leased to Ladies Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on the condition that they manage the park in lieu of residents and things have run smoothly ever since then.

Around 1300 foreigners were living in the area towards the end of the 19th century when the tennis club opened. The majority were English with a fair few Americans and some French and Germans too. According to one of the signboards in the museum, playing tennis and chatting over a cup of tea in Yamate Park was a great pleasure for these foreign ladies living abroad.

After the war, Yamate Park was requisitioned by the U.S. occupation forces but returned in 1952 and 12 years later the club started to accept Japanese members eventually leading to the park being returned to the local citizens as a place of international friendship.

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Displays of balls and racquets through the ages take up the majority of the space and for a tennis fan it was interesting and pretty comical to see the old-style wooden racquets and the balls which they played with way back in history.

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Visiting Japan’s second largest city just to visit this museum is probably a step too far but combined with a day or two in Yokohama it may be worth a little detour and the rest of the Yamate area is definitely deserving of your time.

You can read about my trips to watch the Toray Pan Pacific tournaments in Tokyo by clicking on the following links:

TPP 2010         TPP 2012         TPP 2013         TTP 2014

Posted in Japan Travel, Sport, Tokyo Daytripper: | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

London Filming Locations: Entrapment (1999)

Posted on January 29, 2015 by tokyofox

This Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones heist movie was most memorably set in Malaysia but the majority of the locations were shot in Britain with Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull in Scotland very prominent. As for London, a few places feature in the opening 20 minutes.

The most noticeable locale from the nations capital is The Savoy (below) which appears on the 10 minute mark and is where Gin (Zeta-Jones) is waiting outside in her car ready to tail Mac (Connery) who takes a taxi from there.

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Mac gets out at the ‘Cryptonic’ Building where Gin spies on him riding the escalator up (and later down!) Tower 42 at 25 Old Broad Street (below) which is a few minutes walk from Liverpool Street Station.

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Not too far away from there is the 88m high architectural wonder known as the Lloyds Building. It’s on 1 Lime Street and was innovative for its exterior possessing the staircases, lifts, electrical power conduits, water pipes and so on thereby leaving an uncluttered space inside. This place became the “New York” high-rise which gets robbed in the films opening scene and much later on it doubles up as the entrance to the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur on 76 minutes.

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On 15 minutes Mac and Gin park up in erm, Park Street (below) where the latter is sent into Haas Antique store to steal a vase which unknown to her has something very important inside it. This same street, near Borough Market, also featured in ‘Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels‘ (1999) as the gangs hideout.

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After that they fly on up to Mac’s hideout in Scotland to train for the complicated theft followed by the trip to Kuala Lumpur for the final heist.

You can see ‘Entrapment’ filming locations in Malaysia here.

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For other London filming locations click on the links below:

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace    Trainspotting    Mission: Impossible    Lara Croft Tomb Raider    The Bourne Ultimatum   Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone   James Bond    About A Boy    Quadrophenia    Bridget Jones’s Diary    Goodnight Sweetheart    Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels    Basic Instinct 2    Batman Begins/The Dark Knight    The Italian Job    Snatch    Rom-Com Special    Skyfall    Notting Hill    The World Is Not Enough    Paddington    Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (Re-Visited)

Posted in London Film Locations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Trainspotting On The Great Central Railway Pt II: Loughborough

Posted on January 26, 2015 by tokyofox

On a bitterly cold morning, it was still very misty when my parents and I arrived at Loughborough Central railway station about 15 minutes after we left Rothley Station. I guess the conditions all added to the mystique of the place which seemingly sits fairly isolated in this University town.

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Like the station at Rothley, this one is an island platform that also opened on the same date in 1899 and is a great way of travelling back in time without fear of anything you do altering and affecting the present! It’s no wonder that its retro aesthetic has appealed to so many production companies who have used the station as a backdrop for recreating scenes from a bygone era.

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In terms of movies, the likes of ‘Buster‘ (1988), ‘The Secret Agent‘ (1993), ‘Shadowlands‘ (1993), ‘The Navigators‘ (1999), ‘Enigma‘ (2001), ‘The Hours‘ (2002) and ‘Cemetery Junction‘ (2010) have all taken advantage of Britain’s only perfectly preserved mainline steam facility,

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Unlike the one at Rothley, the heritage railway at Loughborough has a facade, is under a canopy and possesses all kinds of props like trolleys of old suitcases, an old-style pram, red telephone box, vintage posters, signs, advertisements and a retro-style WHSmiths kiosk. Even the staff are dressed in traditional railway clothing which is something workers love to do in Japan but I never thought I would see it back in my home country.

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TV credits over the years have included a range of lifestyle programmes, period dramas and documentaries such as ‘She’s Out‘ (1994), ‘Woof‘ (1995), ‘Goodnight Mr. Tom‘ (1998), ‘Take A Girl Like You‘ (2000), ‘The Cazalet Chronicles‘ (2001), ‘Casualty‘ (2001 & 2014), ‘Hawking‘ (2004), ‘The 4:50 From Paddington‘ (2004), ‘E=MC2‘ (2005), ‘The 39 Steps‘ (2008), ‘Central Steam‘ (2010), ‘South Riding‘ (2011), ‘Top Gear‘ (2011), ‘Heston’s Fantastical Food‘ (2012), ‘Our Story‘ (2014) and ‘Great British Railway Journeys‘ (2014). Furthermore, the music video by Welsh rock band ‘Stereophonics’ for ‘Indian Summer’ (2013) was also filmed here.

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Our final stop was the Great Central Railway Museum which occupies two interconnecting rooms under the steps leading down to the platform. There are over 500 objects on display which evoke memories of days gone by and the atmosphere of travelling or working on the railway. The free museum collects, preserves and displays a wide range of railway-related paraphernalia telling the history of the railway. Featured items include cast iron plates and enamel signs from stations, wagon plates, signal box boards and diagrams, printed materials, pictures, posters, maps, photos and a short film that plays on loop every few minutes.

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It seems that this place isn’t just one for trainspotters and people on a nostalgia trip but kids and families are very much on the mind with events held throughout the year such as meeting Peppa Pig & her little brother George at Loughborough (March 7-8) for a photo opportunity along with funfair rides, face painting, a bouncy castle and so on.

You can read ‘Trainspotting On The Great Central Railway Pt I: Rothley’ here

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Trainspotting On The Great Central Railway Pt I: Rothley

Posted on January 22, 2015 by tokyofox

As a movie locations geek I usually look at the fairly limited info in the filming locations section on IMDb whenever I watch any film. That certainly happened when I watched ‘Buster‘ (1988) over the holiday season which brought back memories as it was one of the first films my family ever rented on VHS in the late 1980’s and I was quite surprised to discover that the great train robbery scenes were filmed on the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire.

‘Buster‘ was just one of many films and period drama’s to have been shot along this heritage railway which only runs for a total of 8.25 miles (13.28 km) between Loughborough and Leicester North. There are only two stops in between; Quorn & Woodhouse and Rothley.

Growing up as a child, trains were very much part of my upbringing as my dad was a railway model enthusiast who had converted the loft into a spectacular miniature railway. Those days are very much behind him now but he’s still very keen on the old locomotives and thought that visiting one of these stations would appeal to both of us a relatively close place to spend a bit of quality time together. Little did I realise that it would turn into a family day out!

My initial idea was for us to just drive over to Loughborough Central Railway Station to see the station and a train and then return home! However, my dad  expanded on it and suggested driving to Rothley and then taking one of the steam trains to Loughborough and back. A nice idea but typically when we got up on the Sunday morning it was icy and very misty outside meaning that nothing could be seen from the train anyway so we just settled for a quick look at each station.

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First up was Rothley railway station which originally opened on 15 March 1899 and it consists of a single island platform on which the station buildings sit. Original access to the platform comes from the road passing above but as we had used the car park we could enter by just crossing the tracks.

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The station has been restored to its late Edwardian-era condition (circa 1910) to represent the line during Great Central days. I was quite taken aback at how few (if any!) signs there were of modern life which all adds to the atmosphere. There are a plenty of props around the place too so as well as the old signs there are also trolleys of old suitcases and an old bicycle propped against the waiting room.

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Right on time the steam engine pulled into the station and it really did feel like I had been transported back into a bygone era. I surprised myself by how much I had enjoyed seeing and photographing the spectacle. Not enough to regularly stand in the cold but enough to move onto Loughborough Great Central Railway Station.

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Click here to read ‘Trainspotting On The Great Central Railway Pt II: Loughborough’ 

Posted in Family, Movie Locations | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Dining Out: Japanese Food Stall In Market Harborough!

Posted on January 19, 2015 by tokyofox

When I have gone back to the UK in recent years I’ve been quite surprised by the number of Japanese restaurants and bento (lunchbox) shops that have popped up  all over London as well as a few in Leicester too. During the time I’ve been living in Japan, sushi has grown and grown in popularity but I never really expected to see it on sale in my hometown of Market Harborough!

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Located in a corner of the market hall, Oori Sushi is owned by a very nice Korean lady called Won Hee who is originally from Seoul. She is helped out from time to time by her son so its very much a family-run stall.

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Up until last August I had never eaten Japanese food outside of Japan and unperturbed by those experiences I was keen to sample what Oori Sushi had to offer so one lunchtime I met up with my friend Ben who has been something of a regular at this place since it opened in July 2014.

It felt only right to start with a cafetiere mug of green tea (£2.25) whilst we perused the menu. As you can see below there were only two things on the menu so that didn’t take too long! The menu may be fairly sparse but its important to remember that this is a market stall and not a restaurant!

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What there is on offer is freshly cooked and prepared and I guess after previous experiences I was quite surprised how good it tasted. Ben and I both had the karaage-don (£4.50) which is basically Japanese fried chicken on a bed of shredded cabbage and rice with Japanese-style Worcester sauce.  Of course it’s a little different in style to what is usually on offer in Japan but I’m not one to turn my nose up at such British-Japanese fusion.

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For the record, there is often a third ‘special’ dish on the menu and a quick scan of the stalls twitter page (@OoriSushi) reveals that these have included such delicacies as pork cutlet on rice, miso ramen, Korean style meatballs on rice and  teriyaki chicken.

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As for the sushi, there are five sets on offer; smoked salmon (£4.50), teriyaki chicken, marinated tofu, tuna rolls and crab-stick rolls (all £4 each). I splashed out on the salmon one which was made up of nine pieces and certainly didn’t disappoint. Really good stuff and as good as anything I’ve had in Japan!

There are a couple of tables in Oori Sushi or you can order it all as a takeaway. The final cluster of photos below show some of the oriental snacks available for purchase though it seems like they change all the time.

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Personally, I’m not sure when I’ll next be back in town but when I am I will do my  best to visit this place which I sincerely hope prospers.

Oori sushi can be found at Market Hall, Northampton Road, Market Harborough, LE16 9HB. It is open from Tuesday till Sunday (0900 – 1630) and is closed on Mondays. 

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Star Wars Traveller – Naboo Revisited (a.k.a. Watford, UK)

Posted on January 16, 2015 by tokyofox

Four years ago I visited Whippendell Wood in Watford which was used in ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace‘ to portray the forest of Naboo. Back then I was fairly satisfied with my visit but heavy snow in the area meant that it looked more like the remote ice planet of Hoth! As a result, I was keen to return one day and see it in its more normal setting. However, there was still a light frost on the ground but with a bit of Winter sunshine there was actually some greenery to be seen.

This time I walked to and from the wood with the former journey being the most difficult but thankfully there were a few people along the way to point me in the right direction. My aim was the Grove Mill Lane Car Park as I wasn’t going to bother with the actual forest scenes this time which really are like looking for a needle in a haystack. The two pictures below include a screenshot and my photo from 2010. There is a marking on the tree on the left indicating its the same place.

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My mind was focussed on the golf course just across the road where a few scenes were filmed. These are far easier to locate by exiting the car park, turning right and walking for about 50 metres where there is an entrance on the left which then takes you on to the outskirts of the course.

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Enter and walk back towards the car park and you’ll soon come to the trees which were used in the first prequel in 1999. They are all in one place but just shot from slightly different angles.

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This is where Amidala and the rebels make plans to attack the city of Theed (the capital of Naboo) towards the end of the film.

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‘Star Wars episode VII‘ is released at the end of this year and we will have to wait till then to see if Naboo features and if it does then it will be interesting to see how similar Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire) is to that of Whippendell Wood.

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How to get there: Be aware that if you’re using public transport this place is not the easiest to get to. From Baker Street Underground station (zone 1) take the Metropolitan line to Watford in zone 7. Once there, the easiest option is probably to take a taxi to the Grove Mill Lane Car Park but of course that’s more money spent! Walking is an option but please note that you probably do need to allow nearly an hour each way! A good map (traditonal or mobile phone style) and a good sense of direction is needed. Trains are not quite so regular in these parts of Greater London so if you do decide to walk and need to return to central London then you should probably allow for around five hours. Good luck and may the force be with you!

You can see other Star Wars Traveller entries by clicking on the following:

Naboo (a.k.a. Como, Italy)

    Naboo (a.k.a. Villa del Balbianello, Italy)

  Naboo (a.k.a. Seville, Spain)    Naboo (a.k.a. Caserta, Italy)

Tatooine (a.k.a. Tozeur, Tunisia)

  Tatooine (a.k.a. Matmata, Tunisia)

    Tatooine (a.k.a. The Ksours, Tunisia)

  Tatooine (a.k.a. Djerba, Tunisia)

    Tatooine (a.k.a. Death Valley, USA)

Posted in London Film Locations, Star Wars, Star Wars Filming Locations | Tagged , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Sightseeing In Leicester! Yes, Really!

Posted on January 13, 2015 by tokyofox

I was born in Leicester, used to regularly go shopping there, worked there for a while and have been to watch Leicester City at home hundreds and hundreds of times so you’d think that I know the place well. Sadly I don’t, so this time while I was back home I was determined to do a walking tour of the city and see some of the parts that were still unknown to me beforehand.

Now Leicester is not exactly on the tourist circuit for visitors coming to Britain but whilst perusing a mates Lonely Planet Britain travel guide I decided to note down the “sights” which it suggested for this multi-cultural city. Topped up with some more up-to-date online info I started off at the station (with the Thomas Cook statue outside), headed down Granby Street and began my trip down memory lane.

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My first port of call was Leicester Market which has existed within the heart of the city for over 700 years. I was just interested to see if Linekers pick your own fruit and veg stall was still there and of course it was! Leicester’s favourite son Gary Lineker would often help out on this stall during holidays as he was starting to make a name for himself in the mid-eighties. It was all still early on in the year so didn’t seem too busy and was not how I remembered it really.

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Just a stones throw from the market on the corner of Humberstone Gate (pictured below) and Gallowtree Gate is the bronze Sporting Success statue which was built following successful seasons by the three local sports teams in the 1996-97 seasons.

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The Clock Tower is the centre piece of the City centre standing at the cross roads of  pedestrianised areas which split off in all directions. I was hot on the trail of Richard III who was the King of England between 1483 and 1485. There is a statue of him on St Martins East which is literally a few metres away from the King Richard III Visitor Centre which was sadly closed on that day.

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Not much further along was Leicester Cathedral and the Guildhall which dates back to medieval times. This 14th century timber framed hall would have been a building of importance during the time of Richard III.

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Doubling back on myself, I returned to the heart of the city to take a very quick look around what is now called the Highcross Shopping Centre. It used to be known as the Shires back in my day but now its much bigger and more developed.

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I stopped off at the Showcase Cinema De Lux to watch the ‘Paddington‘ (2014) movie and as soon as I exited I saw two Japanese restaurants next door; Wagamama and Yo Sushi. I didn’t bother with either though! Maybe I was put off by my visit to the latter back in August of last year and the terrible reviews given to the former by some of my students.

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More signs of Japanese culture taking over the city as back inside the shopping centre I went to SuperDry which over the last few years has just grown and grown in popularity. I do actually like a lot of the stuff in these stores (not the prices though!) but could never wear it back in Japan as the locals would just laugh at the strange Japanese used purely for fashionable purposes.

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Beyond the very modern looking cinema and John Lewis building is St Nicholas Church and the Jewry Wall & Museum lying next to it which is believed to be one of the tallest surviving pieces of Roman masonry in the country.

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The final few sights were ticked off in no time starting with the pleasant Castle Gardens (although I forgot to return to see St Mary de Castro Church which overlooks the castle and gardens) which were followed by De Montfort University, Jain Centre, Town Hall and some other interesting buildings of note.

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A couple of places away from the centre which I visited two days earlier on my way to and from the Leicester City FA Cup game included Nelson Mandela Park and the Leicester Tigers Rugby ground more commonly known as Welford Road Stadium.

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So there you have it! Sadly, the majority of tourists only ever pass through the UK’s  tenth largest city as they go between London and Liverpool and/or Manchester. Up until last year none of my students had ever heard of Leicester or Resuta (レスター) as they call it. However, since September Princess Mako (a member of the Japanese Imperial family) has been studying museology at the University of Leicester which has resulted in some students actually being aware of my birthplace. Maybe, that will result in a few Japanese tourists stopping off in Leicester for a bit en-route to the more exciting British destinations.

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London Filming Locations: Paddington (2014)

Posted on January 10, 2015 by tokyofox

Peru is a country that has long fascinated me and is one I’d love to visit. I know it of course for the world wonder that is Machu Picchu, ex-Leicester player Nobby Solano (13 appearances!), Deportivo Wanka football club but most famously it’s the original home of Paddington Bear. A lot of the British population have a huge affection for this fictional bear due to Michael Bond’s books and the 1975 TV series and thankfully this 2014 movie didn’t disappoint with this warm and witty story.

WARNING: May contain minor spoilers!

It starts off in “Darkest Peru” which was actually filmed in Costa Rica though I can’t be any more accurate than that I’m afraid! Tower Bridge (10 minutes) is one of the first places seen in London as the postman drives across the famous bridge with Paddington (unknown to him) in the back of the van.

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Marylebone Station (11 minutes) was used to portray Paddington Station as it was thought to Continue reading →

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Back Home & Reunited With My Family……For A Few Days!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by tokyofox

For the first time in three years I returned home to my parents house for Christmas as both of my sisters and their families were going to be in attendance. It was also dad’s 70th birthday just after Christmas so it seemed like a good opportunity to go back for a rare get-together. Sadly, the only person not to make it was my wife who was working the Christmas period back in Tokyo.

2008 was the last time all of us (my parents, two sisters and me) were together and since then there have been a few additions to the family. It wasn’t long ago that I saw them all as I saw Lorna, Stuart and George in August and my oldest sister Ruth, Carl, Eifion, Anesta and Sioned when I visited Batam in Indonesia in October for a long weekend.

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It was a really nice time though things never go too swimmingly of course and so we had tears, tantrums, squabbles and so on….and that was just the adults!! haha! Of course all those things were just brief lows among many great moments. Sadly, there were a fair few of us suffering with the common cold but we battled on and a lot of time was just spent sitting around the living room playing with the kids and watching a bit of TV including the Raymond Briggs classic ‘The Snowman‘ which I hadn’t seen in full for many, many years.

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Christmas day was really all about the kids and they had a huge amount of presents to open. What should be the best day of the year for them rarely ever goes to plan and so emotions were up and down. The day started at the ungodly hour of 4.30 am with some of the kids coming down to see if Santa had been. Amazingly he had came down the chimney (Anesta was very worried that he wouldn’t fit but my parents reassured her it wouldn’t be a problem!) and covered the area around the tree with presents without Lorna and Stuart (who were sleeping in front of the fireplace) noticing! I was on the dining room floor in the next room so had to get up as people were starting to walk through the room and didn’t need my body lying in the way.

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The majority of the presents were for the kids and there were loads of them so we opened them in two sessions either side of Christmas lunch which was thankfully a bit earlier than normal given the super-early start to the day!

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Personally, one of the most pleasing parts of the day for me was seeing my eldest nephew Eifion playing with the Star Wars figures and toys later on in the day. Let’s hope the force remains strong with this one as that will ensure an easy life of presents from me!

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Tiredness, jet-lag, old age (?) and so on meant that everyone went to bed just after 10pm but I didn’t want to spend another night on the floor so thought I’d go and use the un-used room down at the Travel Lodge which Ruth had booked. Christmas Day had been a long, long day and I needed to get some proper rest in a good bed. It was strange walking down town on Christmas night though as there wasn’t a soul in sight as I made my way in the dark, quiet streets.

As soon as I walked back into my parents house the next morning my nephew George shouted at me ”Where’s My Pants?” in reference to a game I’d downloaded onto my iPad a couple of days before and which he wanted to play. This was a very dull, simple matching game that came up as a reference point to ‘The Lego Movie‘ (2014).

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A bit later on that Boxing Day morning we went down to the village green for the annual Fernie hunt meeting which is attended by a couple of thousand people though the main attraction for the kids seemed to be seeing the horses having a poo! We didn’t hang around there too long this year so no post-hunt drinks in the local as we were set to have a 70th birthday lunch in the town centre at Wild Wood restaurant and bar.

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For the sake of the kids we pretended that it was my Dad’s birthday on that day (it was really on the 29th) as they were leaving the following day to see the other set of grandparents. We had a lovely meal in there and back at the house a bit later on, there was some kind of tea party with jelly, cake, crisps as the kids celebrated the birthday of their granddad.

You can read about previous festive trips back home by clicking on the links below:

Christmas 2007   Christmas 2008   Christmas 2009   Christmas 2010   Christmas 2011

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FA Cup R3: Leicester City 1-0 Newcastle United

Posted on January 4, 2015 by tokyofox

The BBC may have been trying desperately to make us think there was still some magic left in this famous, old, traditional Cup competition (with a barrage of FA Cup related programmes throughout the week) but I certainly didn’t feel it as I made my way to the station whilst the rain was absolutely hammering it down. In fact I was close to bailing out at one point as I didn’t have a ticket and so had nothing much to lose. However, I knew it was my one and only chance to see my team in action so persevered and thankfully I was rewarded with victory and a place in the draw for the fourth round.

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Call me a plastic fan but this was actually my first Leicester game since Crystal Palace away in January 2012 and my first home game since we drew 2-2 with Leeds United on Boxing Day in 2010. Of course the 12,000 mile round trip means it’s not too easy these days to get down to Filbert Way and when I am back there are often other things going on.

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As I didn’t have a ticket I was somewhat taking a bit of a risk although I was sure that it would be far from full capacity. As it was, the attendance was 23,212 which I thought was pretty good for a cup game not included in season tickets. I arrived at the ground two hours before kick off which is the earliest I’ve arrived (by a long way!) for well over twenty years. By coincidence the last time I arrived so early was also against Newcastle for a crucial last-day-of-the-season game in 1992.

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After asking around I was sent to a few different places in search of a match day ticket before eventually getting lucky in the club shop or the fan-store as they prefer to call it these days! As it was only an FA Cup match it wasn’t considered too important and so tickets were thankfully reasonably priced. £15 for mine and a return to the Spion Kop where I was a frequent visitor in my last regular full season back in 2002-03.

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As for the action itself, there wasn’t too much to get excited about until late in the first half when Newcastle had a goal disallowed for offside (very belatedly it has to be said!) before we took the lead moments later when Leonardo Ulloa powered in a header off the underside of the crossbar from a short corner. Leicester were the the better team in the second half and only two good saves from Wood and Vardy by the Magpies keeper Alnwick kept it to a single goal difference.

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The opposition were roundly booed by the travelling support whilst our unbeaten run extends to three games which I pray will continue for the next couple of home league games as we fight to climb off the bottom and try to survive this first season back in the top flight.

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