Exotic places watching Town

Just to try and get something a tad different from everything else surrounding the club at the moment.

Have you ever watched Town abroad? I count Ireland and Scotland in this category, and what were your views on the games and the trips? Would you like the club to go down this route again?

For my sins I went to the Danish and Swedish pre season tours at the start of the Millenium and had a fantastic time at both. Met some great travelling Town fans, sunk a few beers, took a few penalties on the pitch pre game at Herfolge with other fans. Great countries, great people, superb beers. In Sweden the sun never stopped shining, in Denmark it p1ssed it down for a fair bit of the trip. Highlight of the Sweden trip, for me, was the games against Trelleborgs Kombination where, upon entry to the ground, you were greeted by a jazz band, barbeque and open air bar immediately you got in there. With excellent weatehr it was the perfect enivronment for watching football.

Have been on both the Ireland tours, although I could only visit one ground each time.

Linfield - scary place. To get there from my b&b had to go down a dimly lit street where every other house had King Billy flags or red hand of Ulster flags hanging outside. As I was doing a bit of scouting for the club (in the south west of Scotland) at the time, Arthur Mann told me to meet him outside the ground. I got my ticket to watch the game in a huge box which seemed to cover the whole of one end. Saw the game in (mainly) total silence having been advised it would be best to do so as I'm nearly 6 foot 3 and had very short hair then and was advised I'd be mistaken for a squaddie. This was prior to the peace process and they were words I took very seriously - until Mendonca scored late on in the game to make it 2-0 and I gave a rather muted "yay!" only to see everybody's heads turn to look at me. That's when you noticed the Long Kesh tattoos etc. Next time they got a corner and they had taken their minds off me I downed my large Bushmills quickly and left unannounced.

Following season went to the game at Cliftonville. Got to the ground in a taxi with my eldest son, both resplendent in our Town tops. As the car pulls up this huge bloke comes running over to the car and pulls the door open. I immediately think "Oh, phuck, here we go" and he said "Are you Grimsby?" Think the shirts may have been a giveaway! He said to follow him and he led us into their social club which was heaving with their fans, and they all got up and clapped us to the bar! Was absolutely gobsmacked, but was told they were just so glad that fans were prepared to come to the ground after the Troubles had just recently finished and the official peace process was up and running. Had rinks bought us and a great time. Upon entering the ground sat next to my old mate Sid Woodhead and we were kept being given hassle by some local feral youths, until a committee man came over and asked if everything was okay. We told him what was happening and he said leave it to him. He went and had a word with a small unassuming guy a few seats down and he went and spoke to them. They literally shat themsleves and went very quickly, never to be seen again. We were later told he was a provo.

In Scotland, have seen the Town at Queen of the South, Stirling Albion and East Fife (I think Steve Archibald had just come back from Barcelona to manage them!)

I love the travels to grounds you never usually get the chance to go with such friendlies. Gave the Spanish trip, the season after Denmark, as I thought it ws probably just a recipe for trouble. Wish I'd gone now, of course, but there you go.

Any other tales?

Great stories JDT.Never seen town abroad the closest I suppose I got was Barnsley in the anglo Italian cup.We were winning 0-1 in the pouring rain and the 200 or so town fans gave a rousing rendition of que sera sera whatever will be will be were going to Italy then as usual after the joy came the pain and we lost 2-1

I saw them play somewhere near Malmo in Sweden one preseason.
I remember seeing Livvo and Gallimore and a few others having a few in the main square in Malmo

Never actually watched Town abroad, getting commentary is my finest achievement.
Though back in 2014 on holiday was a fun match day.
We'd just sat down in a cafe in Barcelona to grab some food after a day out and about and I couldn't get a signal to check the scores. I asked the missus and she got them on her phone and read out "Gateshead 1 - Grimsby 6 "......I now ashamedly admit I said "No, think you've got that wrong love...read it again", so gobsmacked was I at getting six away goals, especially at that place.

And as a bonus that cheat Baxter scored an OG

Quoted from londonmariner2

I saw them play somewhere near Malmo in Sweden one preseason.
I remember seeing Livvo and Gallimore and a few others having a few in the main square in Malmo

I was there that day.

Not abroad but I have been to exotic places like Histon, Braintree Ebbsfleet ect ect,

I do not wish to return to them though..

I've streamed them in Iraq , Nigeria , Siberia Equatorial Guinea and various other excrement holes of the world , I watched the Wembley play off promotion when I was In Iraq  via facetime from my sisters house as I coulnt get the stream to work

Closest to abroad I’ve seen them was in Wrexham & Newport.

Quoted from grimps

I've streamed them in Iraq , Nigeria , Siberia Equatorial Guinea and various other excrement holes of the world , I watched the Wembley play off promotion when I was In Iraq  via facetime from my sisters house as I coulnt get the stream to work

Army?

Quoted from Mariner Ronnie

Army?

Nope !
I come from a long line of cowards

Followed the end of last season while I was in India for 6 weeks, one of my colleagues is now over here from India for 6 months and I took him to the Accy game so that counts for him.  

Have never heard of anyone who went on the Icelandic tour back in 80s, or the youth tournaments they used to play at NAC Brdea in the 70s Anyone know different? The NAC tournaments were actually won by Town (twice I think) and were used a breeding ground for all the young lads that came to prominence in the 1970s.

Great life experiences JDT. Very frightening at the time, but something to tell the Fishy and
your grandchildren years later.   Probably shape you as a person as well.

The most "exotic" experience I have watched Town was in Scunny in about 1970.  Four of us (all teenagers) caught a very early bus from Mablethorpe.  We were in the ground early in the Scunny end, along with a large contingent of Town fans.  Until more home fans came in and we were forced out.

After the game many Town fans were cut-off at some crossroads and chased by a much larger group of Scunny fans.  Weall had to ran hard to get out of the way.

In the chaos the 4 of us were split into pairs.  We could not get to the bus station to get home.  We had to hitchhike out of Scunny to get to Mablethorpe.  Hitching at a large roundabout (without any colours showing), a van of gypo's came by.  The van had sliding doors. I shouted a warning but as it came by my mate got hit across the back with a walking stick. Very painful.    (We did all make it home eventually).

Scumthorpe is therefore not my favourite away game or town.  Bad memories.    

I well remember a "soccer special" - those were the days - going to Scunny and somebody pulling the chord about a mile outside the town. Police came and weren't very happy at all, especially when  the train emptied and everyone went across the fields to get into Scunny. Think that was probably 1972-3.

The football specials were a great day out, as did the old early bird trains to London when we played the likes of Brentford, or the Manchester line for games like Bury, where you got your train tickets for about 75% cost price if you saved Persil vouchers! Lost count pof the amount of times they got totally wrecked by a few nutters, which eventually led to them being disbanded of course.

Quoted from londonmariner2

I saw them play somewhere near Malmo in Sweden one preseason.
I remember seeing Livvo and Gallimore and a few others having a few in the main square in Malmo

Happy memories of both trips. Trelleborg was the playing field with the marquees and jazz band. i seemed to remember a lad getting very piissed  who ended up sitting on the Town bench in his kit. Ystaad was the othe game down there, lovely old Town centre where i discovered pear cider for the first time.
I think the Herfolge (with the tiger taxi) was the year after.Tiny village with a tupidly big ground for the size of the place.They'd unexpectedly won the Danish League and hosted Rangers the year before. We also played FC copenhagen, and had  avery pleasant evening intheir fans favourite Copenhagen bar

Ystaad was a beautiful place. My wife and I had bed and breakfast with a lovely couple there for a week. It's where Wallander is filmed although I've never seen the ground on it.

Got taken around the ground by some proud committee men when I turned up early, and then spent the rest of the day drinking great beer outside their wee club whilst all the other Town fans were sat down, dry, near the halfway line!

Quoted from jock dock tower

I well remember a "soccer special" - those were the days - going to Scunny and somebody pulling the chord about a mile outside the town. Police came and weren't very happy at all, especially when  the train emptied and everyone went across the fields to get into Scunny. Think that was probably 1972-3.

The football specials were a great day out, as did the old early bird trains to London when we played the likes of Brentford, or the Manchester line for games like Bury, where you got your train tickets for about 75% cost price if you saved Persil vouchers! Lost count pof the amount of times they got totally wrecked by a few nutters, which eventually led to them being disbanded of course.

I went on three special trains, one to Bolton, one to Hull City one Tuesday night and one to Wolves.

When the Hull train pulled into the station at Boothferry park hundreds climbed over a small fence and got in for nothing, on the way back the feds kept the train outside Thorne so when we got back to Grimsby it was after closing time.

The Wolves train broke down and we got their well after kick off.

I remember the wolves train breaking down and missing the kick-off we might have been a goal down when I got in can't remember for sure, only remember thousands of town fans and we had a crap view, happy days 😀

Ibiza town was a top weekend good turnout from town fans, only thing I can remember from  the game was the naked town fan swinging from the cross bar 😂

Quoted from Grim74

Ibiza town was a top weekend good turnout from town fans, only thing I can remember from  the game was the naked town fan swinging from the cross bar 😂

The island's got a couple of Spanish fifth tier clubs, San Rafel and UD Ibiza as well as the team we played then, Sant Antoni de Portmany and a couple of other clubs further down in standard but with half decent stadiums. There's around a dozen leagues at fifth tier in Spain that are regionalised, so below fourth tier English football, but would make for a livelier pre-season tour than Devon..

Quoted from Grim74

Ibiza town was a top weekend good turnout from town fans, only thing I can remember from  the game was the naked town fan swinging from the cross bar 😂

Yes, and I've regretted that ever since.

Northern Ireland sounds scary JDT. I've been to Hartlepool before and that was bad enough walking from the station to the ground.

Under Alan Buckley, they  played a couple of pre-season friendlies against Oadby Town, a suburb of Leicester. AB himself played in one game, and there was some good banter going on between him and the few Town fans in the little ground. A friendly place and a good atmosphere.

To be honest the Linfield one was scary whereas the Cliftonville escapade was easily sorted inside the ground. I did think I was going to have to resort to some long lost negotiating skills to deal with the big guy who came bounding up to our taxi before the game, but once he'd taken us into the social club it was surreal. Loved every moment of it as did my son.

All part of life's rich tapestry as they say.

Was in marmaris, turkey in 1998 for the start of the season. Town played Ipswich live but it was Man Utd v arsenal (I think in the charity shield first). The bar myself and an Ipswich fan were in was heaving with all these plastic prem fans. As soon as the game ended, the place emptied with only myself and this Ipswich fan left. The owner and waiters made sure we didn't leave before a bottle of raki (and the game) were finished!

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

Was in marmaris, turkey in 1998 for the start of the season. Town played Ipswich live but it was Man Utd v arsenal (I think in the charity shield first). The bar myself and an Ipswich fan were in was heaving with all these plastic prem fans. As soon as the game ended, the place emptied with only myself and this Ipswich fan left. The owner and waiters made sure we didn't leave before a bottle of raki (and the game) were finished!

I remember watching that game (a bore draw) on telly too. Only in slightly less exotic surroundings - the Bishop in Residence down by the Thames in Kingston. Met some non-plastic Man Utd fans later that evening in the Grog Shop in Shepherds Bush - real Mancuians: I'd heard there were such people but until then had never met any real ones (plenty of Meggy and Cockney Reds but no actual Mancs.)

Quoted from jock dock tower

In Scotland, have seen the Town at Queen of the South, Stirling Albion and East Fife (I think Steve Archibald had just come back from Barcelona to manage them!)

I love the travels to grounds you never usually get the chance to go with such friendlies. Gave the Spanish trip, the season after Denmark, as I thought it ws probably just a recipe for trouble. Wish I'd gone now, of course, but there you go.

Any other tales?

Went to the Stirling game....very friendly all round....went looking to buy a souvenir and was eventually led to a fella who could help us....he promptly apologised as the shop wasnt actually open and they didnt have any stock in yet.... but he went into an office rooted around and brought out a packaged club badge....pretty sure he just gave me it under the circumstances....got talking to him and turned out it was their chairman.

Thats pretty much all i can remember from the football side of things....apart from getting a rare glimpse of Lewis Gobern and Charles Adameno.  

Pretty sure that town ipswich 0-0 on tv was the only goaless game in th football league that weekend

Did we miss a pen first few mins as well?

The day culminated in me falling in the pool pished 'del boy' style

Dora's anyone know what became of lewis gobern? Can't find anything about him since he left Notts co in 2011

We watched the Braintree play off second leg in That Bar in Tsilivi Zante.  Lost the stream 5 mins into extra time.

Quoted from forza ivano

Dora's anyone know what became of lewis gobern? Can't find anything about him since he left Notts co in 2011

Last seen looking for a surgeon who could replace his glass ankles