North Texas Premier Soccer Association
Division 1A (Spring Season)
Thursday 5th May 2016
Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.18
Dallas City F.C. 2 F.F. Premier 2, attendance 7
4′ 0-1
13′ 0-2
25′ 1-2
59′ 2-2
@ Premier Park, Pitch 2
11115, Elam Road
Balch Springs, TX 75180
No admission or programme.
Second visit to Premier Park having previously done Pitch 1.
North Texas Premier Soccer Association
Division 5 (Spring Season)
Tuesday 3rd May 2016
Kick off 18.45 Actual 18.55
Dallas Cosmos 1 Dot’s Hop House 5, attendance 3
4′ 0-1
12′ 0-2
21′ 1-2
39′ 1-3
56′ 1-4 (pen)
66′ 1-5
@ The Colony Five Star Soccer Complex, Pitch 1
4100, Blair Oaks Drive
The Colony, TX 75056
No admission or programme.
Fourth visit to the complex having previously done Pitches 2, 6 and 7. Despite this being the bottom division it was a decent game as the league leaders won comfortably.
North Texas Premier Soccer Association
Division 1A (Spring Season)
Sunday 1st May 2016
Kick off 13.00 Actual 13.20
Somerset United 0 F.F. Premier 1, attendance 8
84′ 0-1
@ The Colony Five Star Soccer Complex, Pitch 7
4100, Blair Oaks Drive
The Colony, TX 75056
No admission or programme.
This was my third visit to the complex having previously done Pitch 2 and Pitch 6. A really poor game, not helped by Premier playing the entire match with 10 players, despite having a substitute kitted out.
National Premier Soccer League
South Central Conference
Saturday 30th April 2016
Kick off 19.30 Actual 19.35
Fort Worth Vaqueros F.C. 1 Houston Regals S.C.A. 1, attendance 500
38′ 1-0
54′ 1-1
@ Texas Wesleyan University
Martin Field
South Collard Street
Fort Worth, TX 76105
$10 admission
No programme.
This was a perfect double as Fort Worth is on the way home from Stephenville. It was the first game of the season in the South Central Conference and a great turnout on a very warm evening. Vaqueros seemed geared up for the large crowd and as well as a beer tent there were a couple of mobile food wagons. There is no official parking inside the complex so the side streets had to make do. Although looking a bit dodgy it turned out ok. By that, I mean the car was still there afterwards !
The game wasn’t great and tailed off when Regals had a man sent off three minutes after grabbing an equaliser.
National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II
Lone Star Conference
Saturday 30th April 2016
First pitch 15.00
Tarleton State University Texans 5 Texas A&M University-Kingsville Javelinas 7, attendance 489
@ Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex
West Washington Street
Stephenville, TX 76401
No admission or programme.
Depending which car park you use determines whether you pay or not. I obviously picked the right one.
The ballpark was opened in 1988 and has a 550 seat capacity. The official attendance for this is laughable, as the photos clearly show. Thunder was forecast for late afternoon, but thankfully it never materialised.
I-40 Cup
2nd Leg
Sunday 24th April 2016
Kick off 18.00
Memphis City F.C. 3 Little Rock Rangers S.C. 3 (4-5 aggregate), attendance 650
8′ 1-0
11′ 1-1 (pen)
25’2-1
48′ 3-1
57′ 3-2
85′ 3-3
@ Mike Rose Soccer Complex
9000, East Shelby Drive
Memphis, TN 38125
$10 admission
No programme.
It was about half an hours drive east from the basketball, so plenty of time to eat before the match although the refreshments in the stadium looked ok.
Memphis looked like they had turned the tie round when they went 3-1 up on the night, but Little Rock had the advantage of the tie being decided by the ‘away goals rule’ so only needed to be a goal down to win the cup. In the end they won overall anyway. The crowd count here was so much more realistic than on Friday. Only 50 more than I had estimated.
After the match, which finished off my little 5 match tour, I drove back into Arkansas and stopped overnight just west of Little Rock. At least it would only be 300 miles home from here.
National Basketball Association
Western Conference
Play Offs, First Round
Sunday 24th April 2016
Tip off 12.00
Memphis Grizzlies 95 San Antonio Spurs 116, attendance 18,119
Grizzlies Starters ;
Matt Barnes, 15 pts, 8 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk
Jordan Farmar, 6 pts, 1 reb, 5 ast
Vince Carter, 14 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast
Zach Randolph, 15 pts, 7 reb
Tony Allen, 6 pts, 1 reb, 2 stl
Playing Reserves ;
Lance Stephenson, Chris Anderson, JaMychal Green, Xavier Munford
Spurs Starters ;
Kawhi Leonard, 21 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk
LaMarcus Aldridge, 15 pts, 10 reb, 1 stl
Tony Parker, 16 pts, 2 ast
Tim Duncan, 7 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast, 3 blk
Danny Green, 2 pts, 2 reb, 1 stl
Playing Reserves ;
Boris Diaw, Kyle Anderson, David West, Patrick Mills, Jonathon Simmons, Manu Ginobili, Andre Miller, Boban Marjanovic
@ FedExForum
191,Beale Street
Memphis TN, 38103
$40 admission, plus $17.57 fees (resale ticket) print at home.
Programme free, 28 pages.
I couldn’t believe my luck when this was scheduled for a noon start. Tickets were plentiful, although pricey, on the resale websites, probably due to the second seed Spurs being 3-0 up in the series and no surprise that this gave them a 4-0 whitewash over the number 7 seed. Glad I got to see Tim Duncan play for Spurs as it can’t be too much longer before he calls time on a very successful career. There was a bit of a scare midway through the second quarter when a power surge in Downtown Memphis caused all the lights to go off in the arena. Thankfully we were sorted and underway again 20 minutes later. Phew !
FedExForum is located right in downtown Memphis and as well as the Grizzlies, it is also home to University Memphis Tigers in N.C.A.A. Division I. It opened in September 2004, at a cost of $250 million and capacity is 18,119. Despite this also being the official attendance, it was far from full, perhaps as many as 2,000 empty seats dotted around.
Parking was plentiful, although again not free. The local clientele certainly give the area a very poor first impression and I was certainly thankful this game would be finished in daylight !
Minor League Baseball
Triple-A Class
Pacific Coast League
Saturday 23rd April 2016
First pitch 18.35
Memphis Redbirds 0 RoundRock Express 3, attendance 10,171
@ AutoZone Park
200, Union Avenue
Memphis, TN 38103
$23 admission
Programme free, 68 pages, plus free 5 page game information sheet.
I had called in here on my way through this morning and managed to purchase one of the last few $23 dollar tickets. Good jod I did, as only $48 dollar tickets were on sale when I arrived back about 20 minutes before the start, having got a decent parking space for $10 just down the road on a small industrial site. With the stadium being right in the city centre it means there is no way to park within sensible distance without paying, or indeed still having your car there when you return, and this was as cheap as I was going to get.
The Redbirds are an affiliate of MLB team St. Louis Cardinals. Round Rock are teamed up with another MLB team, the Texas Rangers. The game was of a really good standard and perhaps helped by having a decent seat not too far from the action.
AutoZone Park was opened in April 2000. The largest crowd here was 31st August 2008, when 18,620 witnessed the visit of Oklahoma Red Hawks. Nowadays it seats 10,000 and has grassed areas in use as well.
After the game it was a few miles south for a bite to eat and on to the hotel.
National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I
Southeastern Conference
Saturday 23rd April 2016
First pitch 14.00
University Mississippi Ole Miss Rebels 7 Auburn University Tigers 4, attendance 10,102
@ Oxford-University Stadium at Swayze Field
University Place
Oxford, MS 38655
$15 admission
No programme.
Before leaving home on Friday I noticed the size of the crowds Ole Miss were getting, so thought I had better play safe and book a ticket. I phoned their office and was offered an excellent seat right behind home plate. It is so much easier when you are only trying to buy a single ticket for the game as there always seems to be odd seats available, even in the best areas. I was actually doing a game in Memphis tonight, so drove the 137 miles from Little Rock to Memphis, buying a ticket for the evening game, before heading 85 miles south to Oxford, MS.
The team were originally called the Mississippi Flood, but were renamed the rebels in 1936 and have played in the College World Series five times, most recently in 2014. The stadium has a record attendance of11,729, set in 2013, seating 8,500 with further capacity in the way of grass banking.
I-40 Cup 1st Leg
Friday 22nd April 2016
Kick off 19.00 Actual 19.07
Little Rock Rangers S.C. 2 Memphis City F.C. 1, attendance 3,700
12′ 1-0
62′ 1-1
85′ 2-1 (pen)
@ War Memorial Stadium
1, Stadium Drive
Little Rock, AR 72205
$10 admission
Programme free, 4 pages, plus free team sheet.
This is a new competition to be played annually between these two clubs, with the cities of Little Rock and Memphis separated by the I-40, hence the name of the cup. It was the first game played by the newly formed hosts who will compete in the National Premier Soccer League, which is level 4 in U.S.A., whilst the visitors were formed in 2015 and also play in the N.P.S.L., albeit in a different region.
The official attendance was 3,000 more than my estimate, but even the more realistic crowd of 700 was pretty good for this level, although somewhat lost in a ground that holds 53,727. Although multi purpose, it is mainly used for American Football, being home to the Arkansas Baptist Buffaloes, Catholic High School Rockets and an occasional University Arkansas Razorbacks game. The stadium was built in 1948, but has undergone numerous renovations and nowadays has a synthetic pitch. Marked out primarily for American Football, it makes the ‘soccer’ lines difficult to see, despite them being in yellow and makes watching the game awkward at times. I prefer these old bowl type stadiums as they have a bit of character to them. Don’t know what to make of the lone flag draped at one end of the stadium. Very odd thing to see in U.S.A., let alone Arkansas.
This was the first game of a small road trip, starting off with a 320 mile drive via the I-30 E, staying overnight in Little Rock, AR.
