A Right Royal Visit

Date : Saturday October 13th, 2018
Match : Leamington FC vs Curzon Ashton
Squad : Bowen, Quincy, Richo, Laddso (5th cap), Laddsy, Beebs, Kenny (debut).

All aboard for an early start for this trip across the Midlands to see Leamington FC. The trip to Leamington isn't straightforward. Firstly the trek across to Birmingham New Street before changing to head back south east towards Leamington. The longer journey means a liquid brunch whilst perusing the horses to see how we can lose our money today.

We were taking a big squad including Kenny Ladds on his (her) first trip so keeping everyone together was going to be a challenge. This even applied to on the train as Kenny departed to the loo just before Leicester station and came out of the loo to find 4 million people had subsequently boarded the train.
The next challenge was the very confusing New Street station but eventually we found our connection and got on our way.

Royal Leamington Spa is part of an urban sprawl with Warwick and has a population itself of 55,733.
It is named after the River Leam which we cross as we head from the station towards the centre of town. First impressions are that it's posher than the places we usually visit! I'm even inspired to photograph a church....

All Saints Church

We had a plan of some pubs we'd like to visit but as we trooped up The Parade we encountered the obligatory Wetherspoon's pub and so it would be rude to pass by.

The Benjamin Satchwell

The Benjamin Satchwell is a fairly typical 'spoon. Long and narrow inside with a decent choice of beers. However it was standing room only and it was also boiling in there. The beer was ok but not great so it was a one beer stop.

So onwards via the bank of Betfred - up The Parade and then left down Regent Street to find the Fizzy Moon. The Fizzy Moon claims to have been voted best bar in Warwickshire and also to have the best beer garden in Leamington. So did it live up to the hype?
Well it was pretty good to be fair. A friendly welcome, a modern feel and decor, a great outdoors (helped by the mild autumn) and some great beers. We also tested the food in the name of lunch and that was pretty good too. All in all a great pub that did us proud for a couple of hours.

"I've got a tip....it can't lose"

Cheers

Nosh time

Kenny

Kenny, Laddsy and Laddso

So it was a bit of a bind to leave the Fizzy Moon but football called. A trek to the taxi rank and then a debate with the driver about where the football ground was and we are off. Eventually we find ourselves in the car park of an out of town low rise football ground. You could barely see it from the road.

Once into the ground it's into the bar for a pre-match refresher then on to the terracing. The ground is tidy enough, an unexciting out of town non-league ground. The atmosphere is good and friendly though so no complaints. We settled behind one of the goals and enjoyed some great banter with the crowd. The first and main incident however happened on five minutes when an innocuous challenge brought a penalty award for the visitors from the referee - a decision that was to bring her a torrent of abuse for the remaining 85 minutes.

Adam Morgan duly swept the ball home to give his team the lead and that was almost all the excitement done. Both teams struggled with the swirling wind and the ball was being humped and then heading back where it came from. Time for a beer......

The bar was nice (or was it the barmaid) and the beer was not bad so it kept us happy through a scrappy second half and through to the final whistle. The best entertainment in the 2nd half was the irate local who made his way steadily around the ground varying his abuse of the referee according to his audience.
Anyway back to the taxi and back to the town. The taxi dropped us at The Royal Pug, a nice place with good beers and a nice beer garden.

"Honest I never said it was a dead cert"

So from the Royal Pug it was back to the station. As we had no meal booked some people got some grub, some of us went to the Avenue and had a cheeky pint.

The Avenue was a lively looking little boozer - a world away from the trendy types we had tried to then. A proper pub with pool and tv and probably a fight a night. Watered and fed we headed to the station for the trip home armed with snacks, wine and some tunes. Cue bad singing episode....

All in all another good trip - albeit with a longer journey.


Stats
Match
National League North

Leamington 0 Curzon Ashton 2

Stadium – The Phillips 66 Community Stadium = Capacity – 2,300
Attendance – 703

Pubs - 4 plus football club
Best  - The Fizzy Moon
Worst - The Benjamin Satchwell
Lunch - Very Good (The Fizzy Moon)
Dinner - Various fast food
Pies - None

Marks
Ground  - 6/10
Match - 6/10
Beer - 8/10
Food - 8/10
Pie         - 0/10

Enjoyment Factor  - 7/10