Long distance fans, which clubs are closer?

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

Stoke,Port Vale,brum,villa,wolves,Walsall,Stafford rangers.

But i'd rather eat my own knees than watch any west midlands team,my ears can't cope with the horrendous accents from either end of the region.

The only club I would have remotely have considered if Derby had keeled over was Burton Albion.

But more likely I'd have just further travelled to watch Ilkeston Town,my birth town club.

Edited August 10, 2022 by kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong

[WestKentRam]

Lucky 13: Peterborough, Charlton, Ipswich, Bristol Rovers, FGR, WW, Oxford, Cambridge, Portsmouth, Lincoln, Cheltenham, MKD, Burton.

For me it's always a balance of ticket availability and whether midweek or Saturday game. I go to midweek home games and accept getting back 2am or so, but if it's an midweek away game then don't like to travel so far. Must give myself a talking to this season as this makes little sense.

[Old Spalding Ram]

Peterborough, Lincoln, Cambridge and surprisingly according to Mr RACs mileage thingy MK Dons.

Getting into these ……….might have to come up with a cunning plan B!?

[Jayram]

18 hours ago, Wistaston Ram said:

For those of us that live outside Derby how many away games will be closer to you than home matches? For me it will be four, Shrewsbury, Port Vale, Burton and Bolton (not much in it, time wise but shorter distance). Hoping to get to all these grounds.

I live about 3.5 miles from Oxford Utd's ground and I have Wycombe, MK Dons, Forest Green, Cheltenham, Bristol Rovers and Portsmouth all closer than DCFC.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Jayram

[ram59]

1 hour ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

 

But i'd rather eat my own knees than watch any west midlands team,my ears can't cope with the horrendous accents from either end of the region.

 

I couldn't watch any West MIdlands league team, I would have transferred to my local team, Solihull Moors who have been punching above the weight when competing with the ex league teams in the National League. It's a great local community club, being a 'home' to around 70 teams including my walking football team, unfortunately we've just lost, on pens, to a team of ex Forest pros in the Midlands final of the National Walking Football competition for the over 60s.

As regards to accents, the West Midlands has quite a variety, we're not all 'yam yams' or 'brummies', you know.

[uttoxram75]

1 hour ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

But i'd rather eat my own knees than watch any west midlands team,my ears can't cope with the horrendous accents from either end of the region.

Staffordshire is split along the fault line of Utcheter!

South of Utch its yam yams, north of Utch its chipeaters who sound like a poor mans scouser.

[WharfedaleRam]

Most of the football league! 113 miles to PP for me.

[uttoxram75]

13 hours ago, Kernow said:

Yikes, I’ll be hiding then.

This will be my local for a week, feel free to pop in and buy me one this weekend!

[StaffsRam]

3 hours ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

Stoke,Port Vale,brum,villa,wolves,Walsall,Stafford rangers.

But i'd rather eat my own knees than watch any west midlands team,my ears can't cope with the horrendous accents from either end of the region.

The only club I would have remotely have considered if Derby had keeled over was Burton Albion.

But more likely I'd have just further travelled to watch Ilkeston Town,my birth town club.

I hate all West Midlands accents with a passion. Whether it’s the yam yams or the chip eaters, it just sounds “thick”.

As a native I realised this and became very self-conscious about it at an early age so managed to direct myself to a RP accent instead. The missus takes the p1ss on the rare occasion where it drops and my natural accent surfaces. It doesn’t happen very often, usually when emotion takes over, but whenever it does, I can hear it and instantly cringe.

Re Burton, we tried, we’d go to home games when Derby were away, but we stopped in the end because try as we might, we just didn’t really give a sh1t. If Derby died then football would be over. 

[ariotofmyown]

6 hours ago, ram59 said:

My nearest team is now Burton, in over 50 years of supporting the Rams, I believe this to be the first season that we don't have a fixture in the West Midlands.

Good point. No West Midlands team and 1 London team is highly unusual.

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

14 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Good point. No West Midlands team and 1 London team is highly unusual.

Technically though,both Burton and Port Vale are classed as being in the west midlands region.

Burton like uttoxeter are on the border with what is defined as the east midlands.

Edited August 10, 2022 by kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong

[Ram Logan Josh]

Wish I'd not played this game!

142 miles to Pride Park for me from Bristol.

That means Plymouth, Bristol Rovers, Exeter, Cheltenham, Forest Green Rovers, Portsmouth, Oxford City, Shrewsbury, Burton, Wycombe, MK Dons and Port Vale  would all be shorter journeys. I make that 12 grounds.

However I've been driving to and from Derbyshire for 37 years since moving down here. Never seems a chore and was quite surprised how many closer grounds there actually are.

[ariotofmyown]

1 minute ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

Technically though,both Burton and Port Vale are classed as being in the west midlands.....

Burton like uttoxeter are on the border with what is defined as the east midlands.

I may have posted this before, but I think area of the west midlands needs a new name, or the West Midlands does. Counties like Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcester are ignored. Imagine looking for a place to visit and selecting West Midlands! 

There are some lovely towns and countryside in those counties, but bet no one ever goes there.

[Wistaston Ram]

3 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

I may have posted this before, but I think area of the west midlands needs a new name, or the West Midlands does. Counties like Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcester are ignored. Imagine looking for a place to visit and selecting West Midlands! 

There are some lovely towns and countryside in those counties, but bet no one ever goes there.

In my job the West Midlands also includes Warwickshire and Herefordshire, not many league clubs in quite a large area, but agree that there are some lovely places to visit.

 

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

7 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

I may have posted this before, but I think area of the west midlands needs a new name, or the West Midlands does. Counties like Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcester are ignored. Imagine looking for a place to visit and selecting West Midlands! 

There are some lovely towns and countryside in those counties, but bet no one ever goes there.

Most people think of the west mids as being brum and it's locality to be fair.

It's all to do with the 70's when local govt regions and services were amalgamated.

For instance,Walsall,west brom,Aldridge brownhills etc were all part of Staffordshire until the early 70's.

My wife's uncle was in Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent police back then,based at West Bromwich and when the amalgamation happened those regions were absorbed into the new west mids police and he effectively changed forces overnight.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong

[StaffsRam]

9 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

I may have posted this before, but I think area of the west midlands needs a new name, or the West Midlands does. Counties like Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcester are ignored. Imagine looking for a place to visit and selecting West Midlands! 

There are some lovely towns and countryside in those counties, but bet no one ever goes there.

This is doing nothing for my decades-long ongoing argument with the wife about whether we’re northern or not. My argument is that we’re not because the clue’s in the name, “midlands”, middle. Us being seemingly banished from the West Midlands now leaves me questioning just where the actual f*** we are after all! ?

Its a tough call either way, yam yams to the south of us, Mancs and Scousers to the north of us, and the f***ing Welsh to the west…?

This must be what it feels like to be Israeli!

Edited August 10, 2022 by StaffsRam

[ariotofmyown]

34 minutes ago, StaffsRam said:

This is doing nothing for my decades-long ongoing argument with the wife about whether we’re northern or not. My argument is that we’re not because the clue’s in the name, “midlands”, middle. Us being seemingly banished from the West Midlands now leaves me questioning just where the actual f*** we are after all! ?

Its a tough call either way, yam yams to the south of us, Mancs and Scousers to the north of us, and the f***ing Welsh to the west…?

This must be what it feels like to be Israeli!

My boss is from Manchester and he had an idea that people south of the Chilterns are a bit different. Probably cos, like me, he lives just North of Chilterns. Using this, I propose dividing The Midlands up as:

North Midlands: Shrops, Staffs, Derbyshire, Notts, Leics, Cheshire

South Midlands: north of Chilterns and Bristol, south of the North Midlands

Places in my South Midlands seem fairly similar...more rural with big market towns and smaller cities. Never seen that much industry.

North Midlands places, whilst often rural, do have bigger cities and are more post-industrial. I'd include Bham and the West Midlands in this area too.

North Midlands is where all the bigger football teams are from too. There are very few larger, successful teams in South Midlands, probably as the towns are smaller.

You also have the flat, rural areas of East Anglia, Cambs and Lincs aka The East, so seems weird to have the East and The East Midlands as regions.

The places in South Midlands definitely feel more like "The South" to me, whereas North Midlands people seem more "Northern". In accents, poshness general outlook on life.

[ram59]

29 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

My boss is from Manchester and he had an idea that people south of the Chilterns are a bit different. Probably cos, like me, he lives just North of Chilterns. Using this, I propose dividing The Midlands up as:

North Midlands: Shrops, Staffs, Derbyshire, Notts, Leics, Cheshire

South Midlands: north of Chilterns and Bristol, south of the North Midlands

Places in my South Midlands seem fairly similar...more rural with big market towns and smaller cities. Never seen that much industry.

North Midlands places, whilst often rural, do have bigger cities and are more post-industrial. I'd include Bham and the West Midlands in this area too.

North Midlands is where all the bigger football teams are from too. There are very few larger, successful teams in South Midlands, probably as the towns are smaller.

You also have the flat, rural areas of East Anglia, Cambs and Lincs aka The East, so seems weird to have the East and The East Midlands as regions.

The places in South Midlands definitely feel more like "The South" to me, whereas North Midlands people seem more "Northern". In accents, poshness general outlook on life.

What would you call us in the West Midlands then, the 'Middle Midlands'?  After all, we have a pub in Meriden called the 'Bulls Head', which used to have a brass plate on the floor, claiming to be the centre of the country.

One thing you do have to give credit to the West Midlands though, is the running of the Commonwealth Games. Considering we stepped in when the original hosts dropped out and no one else was prepared to do it at such relatively short notice, it's been an amazing success. It shows that Birmingham is not just the dirty, smelly hole that it's perceived to be, by many. Although, I questioned the decision to hold the cycling in London rather than Pride Park.

Edited August 10, 2022 by ram59
Extra information

[Van der MoodHoover]

8 hours ago, BodminRam said:

Yeah thanks, and portsmouth

Oxford? 

[ariotofmyown]

1 hour ago, ram59 said:

What would you call us in the West Midlands then, the 'Middle Midlands'?  After all, we have a pub in Meriden called the 'Bulls Head', which used to have a brass plate on the floor, claiming to be the centre of the country.

One thing you do have to give credit to the West Midlands though, is the running of the Commonwealth Games. Considering we stepped in when the original hosts dropped out and no one else was prepared to do it at such relatively short notice, it's been an amazing success. It shows that Birmingham is not just the dirty, smelly hole that it's perceived to be, by many. Although, I questioned the decision to hold the cycling in London rather than Pride Park.

I did say Bham and "West Midlands" in my North Midlands region.

You/we* can still have the West Midlands if you want to hold onto that geographically imprecise name. 

*I'm from there too more or less. And Bham is a great place.