Stockport County Charity Road Trip

Good morning from a Stockport County fan!

I hope you don’t mind me joining your forum and posting, but I wanted to make you aware of a charity event taking place next month.

On June 25th, myself (‘Sandbach Hatter’) and a chap called Gareth Evans (‘Hatter in Macc’ - who does all of County’s match reports and live tweeting during games), will be embarking on an epic road trip, as we attempt to visit all 22 Conference North grounds from the 2015/16 season, in just one weekend.

We will leave County’s Edgeley Park ground around 8am on the Saturday morning, and hope to return about 9pm the following evening – having travelled just under 1,000 miles in between.

We’re raising funds for a Greater Manchester based children’s cancer charity, Kidscan, and donations can be made via our Just Giving page – [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Whilst any donations will be very gratefully received, the main reason for contacting you is that we would like to meet as many fans from other clubs as possible, as we travel around the country. Our itinerary, subject to traffic, is as follows:

Saturday 25th June 2016

Stockport County 08:00
Stalybridge Celtic 08:25
Curzon Ashton 08:45
FC United of Manchester 09:10
Chorley 10:00
AFC Fylde 10:45
Bradford PA 12:15
Harrogate Town 13:15
North Ferriby United 15:00
Gainsborough Trinity 16:00
Alfreton Town 17:20
Boston United 19:15

Sunday 26th June 2016

Lowestoft Town 09:00
Corby Town 11:45
Brackley Town 13:00
Gloucester City 14:30
Worcester City 15:30
Solihull Moors 16:30
Nuneaton Town 17:10
Tamworth 17:45
Hednesford Town 18:15
AFC Telford 19:00
Stockport County 21:00

If you would like to pop along and say hello, I’d love to hear from you, and I can be contacted at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Live updates, and more accurate ETAs, will be posted over the weekend via Gareth’s Twitter account: @garethe77815055.

Thanks for reading, and good luck for next season!

Greg Hall (Sandbach Hatter)

Are there plans to have the 1919 open and a bit of support for these 2 gents, doing a good effort for charity. Do we have 'work days' at the club where snagging lists are done and supporters help to get the ground tidied, painted and cleaned up for 16/17 season. Is there plans to have the TV on to watch some of the euros! Supporters Group meeting to follow up on 14/6? How about setting up a barbie, bring a plate sort of idea, get some jobs done etc and support these guys!

Thanks for the support Surplus! As it happens, a number of clubs have agreed to spread the word via their websites (although only a handful have actually done so at the moment), but so far only yourselves and Curzon have offered an 'official' welcome. I assume this means someone from the club to greet us, but the more fans that turn out at each ground the better.

It'd be great to meet a few Town fans as we pass, and Harrogate is actually our designated 'lunch stop' for the Saturday so we get to spend a bit longer there!

If anyone would like to pop down on the day to say hi, send me an email to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and I can add your details to our list of fans we're meeting. There will also be live updates on the day in case we hit traffic.

Thanks again for the support.

Sandy

I'll bring it up at our supporters meeting on the 14/6 and see what happens. Do you have a FB group setup that can be circulated and press releases to the local newspapers of a the areas you'll be visiting? Also a just giving page?

The Just Giving page is in the main post above mate: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

No Facebook group (yet) but we have sent press releases to all the grounds and about half have agreed to post on their websites.

Hi Surplus (and everyone else!)

Just wondering if there was any interest at the supporters meeting this week and whether anyone fancies saying hi next Saturday when we visit?

Greg

Hi Greg,

Bought up at Supporters meeting and 1919 venue will be open with a meet and a greet. Look forward to meeting you on Saturday, best of luck with the traffic around Harrogate!

Excellent - look forward to meeting a few of you then!

Are you still stopping for lunch with us?

That's certainly still the plan! Harrogate was always our designated lunch stop for Saturday anyway, bearing in mind the time we hope to arrive, so we had already added on a bit of extra time (hopefully about half an hour rather than the 5-10 we're aiming to spend at most grounds), but since you chaps have been so welcoming, we'll do our best to be on time and stop awhile before heading on to North Ferriby!

Pleasure to meet you gents and best of luck with your fundraising! Stay safe and look forward to seeing you both during the coming season.

Well Done. Have been following on Twitter.

Seen some recognisable faces on there too.

Morning gents!

A huge thank you for the warm welcome we received on Saturday, and for the lunch you put on for us, which was very kind of you. It was a pleasure to meet you too, and although I think I speak for both Gareth and I when I say we are utterly knackered this morning, we will have raised over £2,000 for charity when all the donations are collected together, and we are so immensely proud of that.

We actually arrived back at Edgeley Park only five minutes behind schedule last night, which wasn't bad considering we had travelled 1,000 miles and seen not only the 22 grounds in last season's National League North, but 8 'bonus' grounds too!

We have met some fantastic people along the way, and been bowled over by the generosity of certain clubs and their fans. The clubs who never bothered to respond to our e-mails and tweets should be ashamed of themselves, but it was fans like yours which made the trip a success.

All the very best for next season, and the future with your new pitch!

Greg

p.s. - Surplus, if you wouldn't mind sending me a quick e-mail to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], I could do with the names of the people we met on Saturday for the 'thanks' section of the documentary we're hoping to put together. Cheers!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Reknowned across the league for a good sandwich platter. Top effort Town and we look forward to shaking your hands and taking 6 pts out of your back pocket with a smile.

Surplus wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Reknowned across the league for a good sandwich platter. Top effort Town and we look forward to shaking your hands and taking 6 pts out of your back pocket with a smile.

Well done to everyone from Town who helped with this - particularly HTSC members and Hamil - thanks

Well done Gareth and co. Makes me super proud to be a Town fan in the context of your efforts.