Robins Up : May Day MayDay!.

 Well I managed to attend the Cheltenham ( Robins ) Football match against Hartlepool, The last home game of the season. You may remember from last week they needed one point from their two remaining games to ensure survival in  Football League 2.
Their final match will be  away to Portsmouth,  to which I was not too optimistic regarding points accumulating. 

With Hartlepool below us and in extreme danger of relegation, it was clear that our best chance lay in beating them.

My match ticket at a specially lowered price

 to encourage a large home crowd.

I arrived at about two 'o'clock

one hour before kick-off.

This was the size of the crowd in the

standing area  at 2:20.

Twenty minutes later the stand was full.

Pre kick-off we were treated

to some training exercises.

Here is a shot from the first half.

Hartlepool in blue.

To calm the nerves  the only goal came Robin's way, in the seventeenth minute, when Harry Pell's excellent cross was met by Danny Wright's head from six yards out. 

Goalie Scott Brown was on point that afternoon and made some super saves to deny Hartlepool. He was quite rightly made Man of the Match.

I liked the ironic chant the standing section gave during the final additional five minutes to the Hartlepool fans: " Only five minutes left in the league----- "

 Unfortunately for Hartlepool this is probably true; as to stay up they have to beat Doncaster ( already promoted ) and  also   Newport to lose against Notts County. 

Not impossible but very unlikely.

So it was, with the Robin's fans cheering on their players, knowing another season in the League was assured, all that was left for the Hartlepool fans, to return miserably back home.

Note his  Mimes costume which many fans wore.

See link for info:

Mime costume

😑😑😑😑

Whilst I was content to ' wake up the trees ' in my garden on May-Day, my old friend K.B. took it to another level by driving to Painswick Beacon at 06:30 in the morning to witness the traditional antics of the Morris Men. Here are some of his shots:

May Day

A time  to embrace Nature in all its greens

dressed for summer glories.

A time for rebirth and renewal,

where those less fleet of foot,

 look backwards to younger

 days of love in open air

 with memories

marked with smiles.

For those wrinkle-free the

chase beckons and the sap

rises like tinkling springs

in the Spring time.

Ah to be earthed in this

glorious ground

to feel the wind

whispering tales and the sun

rising up and greeting

the night sky.

All is in front, all is possible

in the summer ahead as we 

ponder and savour 

this May Day Morn.

CK 05 / 05 / '17.

😑😑😑😑

And so the Jump season has ended and  Flat racing takes prominence. Tomorrow ( 06 / 05 ) marks the first of the classics; The Two Thousand Guineas, run over a straight mile at Newmarket.
 I like the chances of Eminent, a son of Frankel, who was unbeaten in his fourteen starts. Whatever he does tomorrow, his future looks bright. He has Churchill to beat.
Wifi for now,
Ck.