What a brilliant day yesterday — one to remember! Started off early at the London Aquatic Centre, where my daughter Sophie was competing in the IAPS Nationals for 50m backstroke. She smashed it — two PBs, 3rd in the final and brought home a bronze medal. A really special moment in a world-class venue — proud dad stuff! Then straight back up to Barnsley for the Simpson fight at Oakwell — and what a night! The stadium looked absolutely class under the lights. We were lucky enough to be in the corner stand and had a cracking time. The club put on a great occasion and all our table loved it. Massive credit to George, Dan, Daz, the catering team and everyone involved! Brilliant! I'm not sure how it was on the concourses, but they seemed to cater well for all those people on the pitch and had ample capacity at the bars. It looked like queues were minimal. I know Jon Flatman had told us at a FAB meeting that they had learnt a lot at the previous event, and at least from where I was, it looked like they fully took on board those lessons learned. And what a fight from Callum — absolutely brutal. Gave us all a bit of a fright early doors, but came through it and finished in style. A real proud night for the town and a brilliant way to end a long day. Great atmosphere. Oakwell was bouncing! Well done Callum. Well done, Barnsley FC! I thought it was pretty special! Up the Reds!
Congrats to your daughter mate. And a fair report of the events last night. The vast majority would agree overall. Town/Stadium/Fight. Enjoyed the Jeffers fight as well, the American deserved to win and connected with the crowd.
Concourse was fantastic no queues only issue there’s no Salt in the Ponty and the prices were abysmal
I too thought the event was absolutely amazing. My one complaint was the alcohol choice on the pitch - it was dreadful. no vodka or gin just those alcopop AU things. the worst (and I genuinely do mean the very worst) wine I’ve ever tasted - they were taking the piss serving that up . It tasted across between gone off **** and bleach. and then no nice beer - why bother selling Madri AND Carling ? I’m pretty sure it’s more or less impossible to tell the difference in taste (one mildly rank, the other rank) The only thing close to an IPA was Doom Bar. It just looked like profiteering to me ie getting in as much as the cheap crap as possible. I’m sure they were selling salt elsewhere and some decent beers so why nothing good ringside ?
By all accounts Salt will no longer be served, it used to be available in the Ponty and the bar had Salt all over it, that has gone too.
That's a real shame. It was nice having a couple of quality beers on tap, by a quality fairly local brewery. Now it's just the usual pig-swill, no attempt by the club to be unique and stand out - wonder if they've approached any of our local breweries? Almost certainly not. As for the away end, embarrassing to only have Coors and Carling on, and a disgrace to charge supporters £6+ for it
For a normal match day surely it can be legal to charge £5.50 for Carling in the Ponty and £6.50 in the North stand ( last seasons prices), bang out of order and at least 2 away teams posted pictures of the prices. That said you’d have to pay me £6.50 to drink it.
I dont think its easy to stray away from Molson Coors drinks (not sure what real ale/Craft offerings they have other than Salt). The club had to get special dispensation for us to sell BrewDog in the fan zone due to the historical contract that had been signed with the Molson Coors for pouring rights in the stadium. Not sure when the contract ends.
