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Doing the 59

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    Doing the 59

    A mate of mine has decided to visit every race course in Great Britain, and is writing a blog about his quest. Has anyone else done this? Is it even a thing?! The sports ground nerd in me likes the concept anyway.

    #2
    Doing the 59

    I've slowly started doing racecourses and it is tremendous fun. Even though I only bet £2 a race, you have a bloody good time. Hexham is my favourite.

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      #3
      Doing the 59

      Stephen Cartmell did a book about this a few years ago, called From Aintree To York.

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        #4
        Doing the 59

        Better to head for the non-league version of horse racing.

        http://www.jackson-stops.co.uk/point-to-point-2015.pdf

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          #5
          Doing the 59

          Oh, it's a thing alright. I think any sport where there are distinct venues can lend itself to a list-making, box ticking mentality. Speedway certainly does. Stock cars are a little more difficult as once you've cleared the permanent 'stadium' venues (I use that word in its loosest possible sense, as anyone who has visited Warton will understand) you find yourself havering about whether to move into the grasstrack world.

          I tried to catalogue all the places I've been to watch rallying - but it becomes terribly difficult once you've listed all the venues that are self-contained or geographically distinct and move into the larger forest complexes or places like Mull (where public roads are used) and the special stage start and finish points can move from year to year.

          What constitutes a fresh tick? If I watch at Calgary Bay one year when the stage finishes at Torloisk, then they shorten it to finish at Ensay the following year and run a second stage from there down Loch Tuath and I watch on the overlapping bit, does that make it a new tick?

          As I'm the only bastard sad enough to even consider doing this, it's an argument I have to have with myself, which means it never gets settled.

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            #6
            Doing the 59

            As I've mentioned on the dedicated thread, I'm rapidly working my way through the current league speedway tracks though there are usually only around 30.

            I'm on 18 of the 27 active this season though a couple more will spring up next season with one club opening a new stadium and another returning to action after a few seasons out.

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              #7
              Doing the 59

              I've done five racecourses (Chepstow, Cheltenham, Newmarket, Wolverhampton and Ascot)

              And seen first-class/senior professional cricket at 20 grounds

              Counting this shit up always comes in handy during bouts of insomnia, I find.

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                #8
                Doing the 59

                I've done 60%, i.e. three, of the British indoor velodromes (the big ones : Manchester, London-Olympic & Glasgow) and will clearly have to do Newport and the new one at Derby some time soon.

                My only outdoor one has been Herne Hill but in some ways it's my favourite.

                .

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                  #9
                  Doing the 59

                  E10 Rifle wrote:

                  And seen first-class/senior professional cricket at 20 grounds.
                  I'm at 12 for first-class cricket, which is ridiculous given how much I love the game. Two of them are Yorkshire out grounds and another was Durham's original place when they first went FC, so I've only actually seen games in 8 counties plus Scotland. Very poor.

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