Over land and sea… and Murcia!
A guide to County’s first pre-season destination
Friday 9 June 2023
NEXT HOME GAME: Huddersfield - Saturday 22 July, 3pm
NEXT AWAY GAME: Lincoln (in Spain!) - Friday 7 July, 12pm
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Friday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
County’s first friendly is four weeks today! Jesus, football’s relentless, isn’t it? Putting this together just 12 days after Wembley, I can’t help thinking about the old sketch on That Mitchell and Webb Look.
But if you’re reading this, you probably love “ALL THE FOOTBALL” so we’ll crack on. We’ve still got a handful of 2022-23 reviews to finish off, but today, our build-up to next season officially gets underway as we look ahead to County’s Spanish trip. Carlos Soldevilla Cabeza, match and media operations manager at the Pinatar Arena, has a few local tips for any Hatters flying over to Murcia.
Today’s edition is sponsored by The Mortgage Mill. My thanks to James (who’s also a County fan). If you’re looking for any advice on mortgage issues, text “County” to 80800.
Enjoy today’s issue.
Des Junior
Here at The Scarf My Father Wore, we like to provide County fans with detailed guides to forthcoming away games. We can’t be arsed doing the research ourselves so we speak to a local instead. Well, surely they know the area better than anyone? Carlos Soldevilla Cabeza shares a couple of decent tips for bars and restaurants in Murcia, as well as what to expect if you’re heading to the Pinatar Arena in July.
Manor: We are surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, so we have plenty of amazing beaches with turquoise water. The best place for that is Cabo de Palos which is 10 minutes from Cartagena and 35 minutes from Murcia city centre.
Parking: We have plenty of parking spots outside our main building, but we recommend everyone to arrive with some time in advance, because in summer, and depending on the match, it can get extremely busy.
Gaff: We are a professional football centre that hosts different clubs and national teams from around the world to train and play friendly matches. We have great facilities and commercial arrangements with local hotels.
Atmosphere: Here at Pinatar we are really focused on football so everything is related to it, with a great atmosphere. There’s also perfect weather for the whole summer.
Scran: One of the best places to eat in Murcia is ODISEO. In San Pedro del Pinatar, you have Venezuela and El Rubio 360° that have spectacular food as well. We don’t serve food at the stadium, but there will be a stand in the car park serving burgers and kebabs.
Booze: On weekends we have a disco club in the main building with a big terrace right next to the main pitch that serves alcohol, but you’re not allowed to bring it into the stand while there is a match playing. There will be security at the entrance of the stands taking care of that. In Murcia city, you can go to ODISEO, which is a very nice club, although it’s a little bit expensive. You can have lunch and dinner there as well. However, the old town zone of the city is really fun as well with lots of bars, restaurants, discos etc.
A Friday night in Murcia: Amazing, you will see.
Owt else: We are sure that you will have a great time.
You know in our intro we said we couldn’t be arsed doing any research? Well, Des Junior felt bad saying that so he’s spent literally days hours minutes compiling this additional information for you:
EP to Pinatar Arena: 1,495 miles.
Directions: Bottom of England. Bottom of France. Bottom of Spain. About 25 hours.
Coaches: Don’t be silly. Can you imagine how many piss stops the Crofter would need?
Murcia on the choo choo: Three trains a day from St Pancras, with three changes and an overnight stop. If Bradford away is a “four can journey” you might need another suitcase for your Murcia train booze.
Last trip to Spain: Ibiza 2006. Lost 1-0 to Scunthorpe in the semi-finals of the San An Cup before beating local side UE San Jose 3-0 in the third-place play-off. (Click here for hedgegrower’s report from the island.)
Last game against Lincoln: Beat them 2-0 on a Tuesday night in February 2013 at Edgeley Park with goals from Danny Hattersley and Sean Newton, a couple of months before we were relegated to the sixth tier.
Thanks, Wikipedia: Murcia is called “Europe’s orchard” due to its long agricultural tradition and its fruit, vegetable and flower production.
If you can’t be bothered watching County and fancy doing something else instead, the best thing to do in Murcia on Tripadvisor is… Free Tour Murcia. Does what it says on the tin. That could actually come in handy if you blow all your money on cocktails on the first night.
Need to remortgage any time soon? Give The Mortgage Mill a call
On the website of The Mortgage Mill, it states the following in their section on remortgaging: “You can remortgage and borrow additional funds for things like home improvements, second homes, debt consolidation, business use etc.”
It (unsurprisingly) doesn’t mention anything about remortgaging to finance a trip to Murcia to watch County’s first pre-season game, although that’s something you may wish to consider if you’re getting the itch to watch the Hatters in the Spanish sun.
I am, of course, joking. Please don’t remortgage your house just to go to Spain to watch us play Lincoln. That’s probably not a wise move. You can remortgage your house for other reasons, however. If you’re looking to remortgage to release capital, or even planning to buy your first home, get in touch with County fan James from The Mortgage Mill. Here he is to explain (better than I can) exactly what the business offers.
“We’re mortgage brokers, which are a dying breed these days as it’s a tough living in the financial climate post-Covid. The reason why we’re thriving and have grown rather than suffered is down to our diversity. We offer both regulated and unregulated finance which is rare in the industry. Brokers usually do either one or the other.
“The regulated side of the business is your mortgage for residential homes and buy-to-lets, with protection services like life insurance, critical illness cover and wills. We do the basic up and down stuff like your high street mortgages (we actually get better rates with the banks than you can by going direct) but any mortgage broker can do those. Where we get most of our business from is the people who have been to their bank and been rejected and don’t know where to go next. This could be due to the type of property they’re buying, their income sources, their residential status or their credit profile. How we help these people is through a current panel of 77 lenders, each with their own area of expertise where we can look to place those who don’t know where to turn. We unofficially boast that if there’s a mortgage out there for you, we will find it, and if we can’t, we don’t charge you a fee.
“The unregulated side of the business deals with alternative financing options for unregulated property. This could be a commercial purchase of a shop or warehouse, or development finance to build a new property, or converting an existing building like an office block into flats or homes. We also assist with short-term bridging finance and development exit finance. As I said earlier you would usually need to seek out a specialist broker for this service, but we do it all under one roof at The Mortgage Mill and Mortgage Mill Commercial. Our business is based in Sowerby Bridge but we have an office in Poynton too, where I work from.
“If anyone wants to ask any questions, there is a free contact page on our website, or you can text “County” to 80800.”
Today in SK
🥗 Food and drink 🥗
The Armoury (SK3) have just launched their new cocktail menu. Mark Stott definitely wouldn’t mind a Red Wine Cobbler, and Lee Todd’s going to be getting stuck into a Lounge Lizard or two. There’s eight cocktails to try in total; head down today to see which one tickles your tastebuds!
Friday Fiesta at TRUNK (SK7). There’s live music from Roy Bennett starting at 7.30pm. Great company, tasty tapas and flowing drinks – what more could you want? Book online or call 0161 222 9260.
🎶 Music 🎶
The Nelson Tavern (SK1) have their resident DJ playing on a Friday night, with Dicko (Ian Dickinson) on from 8pm till 1am.
Off to the Courteeners gig at Heaton Park? Head to Bask (SK1) first for their unofficial pre-party with DJs playing the band’s back catalogue.
The Scarf My Father Wore works closely with venues on a daily basis to bring you the most comprehensive guide to all of the best offers and events taking place across the whole SK region. Click on the links below for full details of everything taking place in your area over the next few weeks.
SK1 / SK2 / SK3 / SK4 / SK5 / SK6 / SK7 / SK8 / SK9 / SK10 / SK11 / SK12 / SK13 / SK14 / SK15 / SK16 / SK17 / SK22 / SK23
Photo of the day
Rumours Sports Bar, Alicante
Thanks to subscriber David Adams for sending this in. County have had loads of firsts over the years, and here’s another one, as our ground sign is the first to go on the wall at Rumours Sports Bar. Supporters donate 10 euros to a local children’s charity before seeing their football team go up. We were the first one, and all for a great cause as well.
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