WorldNet 2013

In terms of accomodation this year lads, I think I'm going to book us into the halls. I'm pissing into the wind in trying to book a hotel and what not as I've no idea with it being a new venue.

The halls would make it much easier for me on the whole on the organising side of things. It'll be £50 each for the weekend for the halls. This gets paid in two installments before we go - £15 in February and £35 in May. That £50 includes a small fee that goes to a damage bond to cover any damages over the weekend.

The halls this time are about a mile and a half away from the pitches but we'll have the bus obviously so will just do the transfer to and from in the morning with that. They are looking into running a shuttle services for teams to get to and from but that won't really affect us.

The only thing this time is if you have your name down come the time the first payment is due, if you pull out, you WILL have to pay for the cost of the room.

Anyway, deadline is still the same for getting your deposits in to me - I need to let them know at that point how many we're taking so they can reserve 'x' amount of rooms/beds for us. At the minute, we've got 16 down and 1 maybe. If numbers are lower this year, I can speak to our usual company about a smaller bus if it's going to be a big saving.

As usual, we'll hopefully get the racenight in which will cover the bulk of the bus and this year the accomodation will be paid before we go too.

Has everyone got their holidays from work booked for this?

If not, better get it done. None of this late pulling out s***e!

Just a heads up - doesn't affect us much as we're used to it but we'll be required to check out of the halls by 10am on the Sunday. At the Halls in the past, because it was right at the pitches, teams have been able to check out right up until last thing on the Sunday. We're used to that anyway though. There's showering facilties at the pitches anyway so we'll still be able to get a wash before heading on the coach home.

Also, as it stands, it's looking like a 32 team tournament this year. If it stays that way, the earliest KO on the Sunday will be 11am. If it increases upto a 48 team tournament, the earliest KO will be 10am. So looks like there'll be none of this 8am/9am KO nonsense - thankfully!

Usual coach booked.

Racenight booked and deposit paid for Fri 3rd May at the Stadium (tickets on sale soon).

3 of 16 paid their accomodation in full. £35 for that due to me before May 1st.

Everyone is now fully paid up for accomodation.

All that remains to be paid now is £50 each for the coach and that's us sorted.

Remember this year, because we've already paid accomodation, there'll be nothing to pay on arrival so although you've paid more beforehand this time, you'll only need beer money when you get there :-)

June 19th is the deadline for getting the £50 coach money in to me so I can pay the coach company.

Any word on selections for the 'International' ?

Team decision to skip it this year ? 'Abe's party bus' all round ?

seems fair !!
Good luck to everyone. Imagine given some of the top effort this year.. there should be a name or two from this squad offered the chance.

That's 5 of the 16 paid the remainder of the coach money. Remember, I need it BEFORE Wednesday 19th June as that's the day I'll be paying it so looking for it in ASAP really. Quicker I get in, less of a rush I have to do my bit.

Cheers.

Still got 6 of you to square me up for the coach - try and get that in ASAP so I can get it paid off.

Full draw confirmed as -

GROUP A: Troon, Barnsley, Preston North End B, FC Halifax Town A
GROUP B: Ipswich Town, Manchester City, Southampton, Darlington
GROUP C: RC Lens A, AFC Wimbledon A, Airdrieonians, Peterborough United
GROUP D: Livingston GS, RC Lens B, Hearts, Kidderminster Harriers
GROUP E: Bury A, Wrexham, Port Vale, Doncaster Rovers
GROUP F: Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Preston North End A, Runcorn
Linnets
GROUP G: AFC Wimbledon B, Stoke City, AFC Telford United, Ayr United
GROUP H: Bury B, St Johnstone, FC Halifax Town B, Manchester United

Only disappointing thing is the fact that there's 32 teams there - only 6 of which are Scottish yet we managed to draw one of them in our group and have played the other two before.

The schedule will be announced shortly so we'll know what time the Internationale and British Cup final is on the Friday night then find out our kick off times for the Saturday.

One good thing is that, because there's only 32 teams there this year, I'm led to believe thta the earliest KO time on the Sunday knockouts will be 11am. So no having to get up at daft o'clock after a night on the sauce.

Once I get the times, I'll confirm what time we'll be leaving on the Friday.

Hearts play Kidderminster on Saturday in the British Cup semis. If they win, it'd be good to watch their final on the Friday night given we'll likely have players involved in the International beforehand and we're staying at the halls anyway - can sort all that out once we know times and what not.

5 weeks tomorrow...

Schedule for Day One is now up on the IFA website - www.internetfootball.org.uk/

Our group games are at -

11.45am - vs Lens (Pitch 1)
2.00pm - vs Kidderminster (Pitch 7)
4.15pm - vs Hearts (Pitch 5)

Aswell as this, we'll be playing a friendly (likely to be against Peterborough) at 2.45pm. (Pitch TBC).

So we'll get a bit of a longer lie than usual on the Saturday. Earliest KO time will be 11am on the Sunday too so that's not too bad either.

The Sports Arena where we're playing (PR2 1SG) is about 2 and a half miles away from the accomodation we're being housed in (Whitendale Hall, Harrington Street, PR1 7BG). So it'll be the usual script on the Saturday morning of the driver picking us up from the accomodation and running us to the pitches.

Not sure what will happen on the Friday night yet. The International will take place before the British Cup final. We'll have players playing in the International then it'd be good to stay to watch Hearts play in the final afterwards. The driver might be under time contraints so might be the case that he drops us at the pitches on the Friday night and we'll have to share taxis to the accom afterwards but that wouldn't be too much of a problem (and would only cost a quid or two each too).

Starting to take shape now. Just waiting to hear what time the Internationale will be kicking off before I confirm what time we'll be leaving. It's about a 3 hour trip and I imagine we'll stop for around an hour half way down so 4 hours from leaving 'til arrival so likelihood is we'll be leaving about 11.30am to get us there for 3.30 as I'm thinking the Internationale will kick off around 5pm (with the Cup Final following around 6.30pm).

4 weeks on Friday...!

Most of this will be a case of confirming with the driver when we meet him on the Friday morning but trying to break things down so we know what we'll be doing.

The coach will be leaving from the Stadium at 10.30am on the Friday. It's a 3 hour journey but we'll likely stop for an hour (max) half way down. So that gets us there for 2.30pm. The Scotland squad are to be at the Sports Arena for 3.30pm.

I'm not 100% sure on the driving hours that the driver will need to adhear to but my thought is that when we arrive in Preston at 2.30pm, we'll go to the accomodation, check in and drop our stuff off there then get the driver to drop us at the Sports Arena (about 2 and a half miles away) and then that'll be him for the day. We'll be at the Sports Arena for the Internationale (4.30pm/4.45pm KO) then the IFA Cup final (6pm KO) then usually, the trophy presentations follow that but nothing has been said yet. Assuming it'll happen shortly after the final finishes, we'll obviously be hanging about for that and then we can just get taxis back to the accom - there's 18 of us and it's only a 2/3 mile trip so will just be a quid or two each.

Likely then head for some grub then out for brews on the Friday night.

Usual script on the Saturday but with a longer lie. Coach will pick us (likely around 10.45am) and get us to the pitches for 11am - first KO is 11.45. Play all our games with the last one scheduled to finish around 4.45pm. Coach back to the accom then fart about/sleep/drink before heading out for scran and brews again.

Then again, usual story on the Sunday, take all our gear on the bus to the pitches, play whatever games we have then and head back up the road after we're finished.

Just a sort of rough outline of what might happen - might differ come the days themselves but it'll be something like that. Remember we won't have breakfast at the accom this year so might be an idea t source a McDs en route to the pitches for some brekkie.

Chris Love had a wee look into pubs/clubs/food places so he'll hopefully have a wee bit of an idea of where we can go. Sure he found a quality, reasonably priced buffet place that we could hit on the Friday night before heading out.

Anyway - not long now - 2 weeks on Friday! :-)

There's obviously no breakfast included at the halls we're staying in this year but there's a cafe on site at the pitches which will be open from 7am on both the Sat & Sun morning where you can get a full Engish and a cuppa for £4.50

So we might leave half an hour earlier in the morning to get there if boys want to get some scran in - can see what the thoughts are on the way down or whatever.

Also, we must be checked out by 10am on the Sunday morning but likelihood is our game will be around 11am anyway so that would have been the script as it is. Still, better than having an 8am start or what not like previous years.