A goal in each half saw Bury lift the Suffolk Premier Cup for the eleventh time in their history.

No doubt still feeling the after effects of defeat in the Isthmian League play-offs at the weekend Lowestoft failed to make any major impression on a game that they were chasing from the 13th minute when Bury went ahead through Craig Parker.

Bury looked sharper and more composed throughout and sealed victory in the 66th minute Tom Bullard headed home Lee Reed’s free kick.

A miserable night weather wise – it rained throughout the 90 minutes – reduced the turn out to just 857 fans.

No apologies for a second successive post on Bluebells! Today’s lunchtime walk took me along the footpath on the western side of Cutlers Wood which – as can be seen from the photos which really don’t do the display justice – was a veritable riot of blue.

Cutlers Wood, along with neighbouring Freston Wood, are said to be amongst the best Bluebell woods in the county. Ground cover is these ancient woods is predominantly bracken and bramble, and in late spring, the Bluebell, the latter forming spectacular sheets of colour in late spring. The unusually cold weather has seen a delay in their emergence this year but it’s been worth the wait.

Watched by a crowd of 1,045 at Portman Road, Wanderers and cross-town rivals Whitton United were locked at a goal apiece after extra time sending the Suffolk Senior Cup Final to a penalty decider.

Whitton’s ‘keeper Liam Jones saved Wanderers’ first three spot kicks before Jamie Stannard repeated the feat, saving Whitton’s next three attempts.

At 2-1 up had Whitton converted the last of those they would have lifted the trophy.

However, Dan Tredway scored to level things at 2-2, and with penalties now at sudden death, Stannard saved yet again, this time from Ryan Flynn, before Luke Read stepped up to win it for Wanderers.

Wanderers first ever Suffolk Senior Cup win and their first piece of silverware since they won the Eastern Counties Division One title back in 2005.

Low tide on the River Orwell between Redgate Hard & Freston Point.

The Willis Faber Building in the centre of Ipswich was one of Sir Norman Foster’s earliest commissions and is seen as a landmark in the development of the ‘high tech’ architectural style.

The design owes much to the black-clad glass box buildings of the 1930’s that were built for Beaverbrook Associated Newspapers in London, Glasgow and Manchester, the latter said to be one of Sir Norman’s favourite buildings.

The black-clad glass is its most striking feature mirroring the surrounding buildings by day and allowing a view of internal activities by night.

The building is three storeys high with twin banks of escalators running through thecentre. On the ground floor is a swimming pool – now covered over to provide for more office space – and on the roof top a garden complete with grass and box hedges.

[Pictures taken on Heritage Open Days Weekend 2010]

The White Horse Bridge at Wembley Stadium Railway Station was opened in 2006 and is named after the Metropolitan Police horse that was famously used to restore order amongst the 200,000 spectators (the original capacity of the stadium was 127,000) who turned up for Wembley’s very first FA Cup Final in 1923. “Billy” was actually grey, appearing to be white in old black-and-white photos of the time.

Taken during yesterday’s trip to Wembley Arena for the BBL Playoff Final here are a few more pictures of the Bobby Moore Statue to supplement my 2008 post.
The twice life size sculpture of England’s World Cup winning captain sits in front of the new Wembley at the end of Wembley Way. My early post on the statue included just a single picture of the sculpture itself but the plinth that it stands on is worthy of further inspection.

The front of the plinth features Moore and his 1966 Jules Rimet trophy winning team mates: Gordon Banks, George Cohen, Jack Charlton, Ray Wilson, Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball, Bobby Charlton, Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt.

On the right of the plinth is the cap presented to Moore for the group game against Uruguay that opened England World Cup campaign.

The rear of the plinth bears a plaque with the following inscription, composed by journalist and close friend of Moore’s Jeff Powell:

Immaculate footballer. Imperial defender. Immortal hero of 1966. First Englishman to raise the World Cup aloft. Favourite son of London’s East End. Finest legend of West Ham United. National Treasure. Master of Wembley. Lord of the game. Captain extraordinary. Gentleman of all time.

A fitting tribute to a player whose name will be forever be linked with Wembley Stadium and England’s victorious summer of ’66.

As much as I enjoyed the Globetrotters evening a month back today’s British Basketball League Playoff Final between the Newcastle Eagles and the Leicester Riders beat that all ends up for entertainment. You can’t better a competitive match in any sport as good as the Globetrotters were is was just an exhibition game after all.

The pre-match and half-time shows were also exemplary, particularly the “Lords of Gravity” an acrobatic basketball slam dunk show team from Budapest whose promotional video can be found here.

Wembley Arena, originally the Empire Pool, was given a £35M facelift and re-opened in 2006. Originally built for the British Empire Games in 1934 it housed a swimming pool, hence the name, and rumour has it that despite the renovations, and the fact that it hasn’t been used since the 1948 London Olympics, the pool still exists below the arena floor.

The Arena’s surrounds have changed dramatically in the last decade. Most noticeable of course there’s the new £757M Wembley Stadium just a hundred yards away. Right next door the Brent Civic Centre and Wembley Library is an impressive new structure due to open later this year, while the London Wembley Hilton, opened in 2012, overlooks the arena to the south.

While these and other developments are breathing new life into what was for sometime a quite grim area, it is sad to see the last remaining structure from the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-25, the Palace of Industry, reduced to a pile of rubble just to the north. More on the failed fight to save it can be found here.

Located on the North Circular Road about two miles east of Hanger Lane is the Ace Café. Built in the 1930’s for traffic using the then new north London link road it evolved into a popular hang-out for ton-up merchants in the 1950’s and Rockers the following decade. It closed in the late 60’s for almost thirty years but was reborn in 1997 as both café and event centre for bike and car enthusiast alike.

No need to worry that turning up by bus (truth be told I’ve never so much as ridden pillion) would do little for our street cred as no one paid us the slightest bit of attention. There must have been at least a hundred bikes sitting out front and double that number of middle aged men too busy drooling over the mostly Japanese made machines to pay us any heed.

Despite the numbers service inside was fast and efficient and our Breakfast Special truly superb. The décor is an interesting cross between motor-enthusiast’s shrine and American diner and well worth a visit whether you’re a petrol head or just plain hungry.