Friday 4 April 2008

The Pilgrims

Surely another mistake in Matt Wright's daily email? He tells us that 940 (nine hundred and forty) seats have been sold for the away game at Home Park tomorrow. I assume this should read 94 and put it down to a typo or rampant PR.

All of those travelling down just for this game, deserve to have a medal struck in recognition of their loyalty to the cause. Additionally, mental health professionals should also be on hand to check out the well-being of those present.

I say "those travelling down just for the game," because I am aware that the Blackheath Ramblers have chosen this match as their annual away-game-weekend. This intrepid group of between 8 and 20 have been making an annual pilgrimmage to an away game for over 15 years. Most are from the Charlton area and just over half are actually Addicks. There is the stray Chelsea and Millwall fan (yes, Millwall), all of whom become Charlton fans for the weekend in recognition of the community in which they live.

Theirs is a professional weekend with travelling reserved for early Friday and often late Monday to increase the options to explore pastures new. There is, of course, much walking but it is broken by frequent refuelling stops. Having spent numerous weekends in their company, I should recall that the name hails from the days when trying to get accommodation for up to 20 blokes on a matchday was nigh on impossible, especially when they rumbled the London accents. So, the Blackheath Ramblers were born and there was never a problem again!

2 comments:

  1. Never heard you sound so pessimistic! Understandable, sure. 94 only? Could be, but the Bristol posse is going as well as my brother-in-law and other supporters from SE Kent, who are here imbibing now, so we're up to 16-40 already!. 3-0 defeat? Possibly, but we're going for a 1-0 to Charlton - Leroy Lita. After similar "West" Country matches (Bristol City, Soton, Cardiff - ok geography stretched a bit), we picked up 9 points from 3 matches. let's make it 12. Keep the faith! (until tomorrow night at least!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bristol - pleased to hear you're flying the flag. I'll not question your mental health as I know this is a home game for you and yours. Apology for the pessimism but that's just how I feel about us at the moment. I did a recce of the remaining fixtures and was going to post that all of the play-off hopefuls have tricky fixtures remianing and that.....enjoy your weekend, if not the game.

    ReplyDelete

Go on, you know you want to....