Saturday 6 February, 3.00pm
Directions by Car: from the M25, take the M23 towards Gatwick and exit at Junction 11 (s/p Horsham). At the roundabout, take the 4th exit onto the A23 towards Crawley. On approaching the next roundabout, a large red and white football appears ahead, and the ground (Broadfield Stadium) below to the left. Turn left and left again for the car park.
Parking: park for £2 in the decent-sized car park at the ground, or opt for the overflow at the nearby Broadfield Park offices, off the A23.
Train: Crawley station is around a mile from the Broadfield. On exiting the station, turn left and at the junction (next to 'The Railway' pub), left again into Brighton Road. Continue along Brighton Road for around 10 minutes, until the ground appears on the far side of the underpass to the right.
The Away Travel Club coach will be running a coach to the game, priced at £18.50 for non-members, £16 for members and £9 for Under 16's. It is due to leave Ely at 10.45am and The R Costings Abbey Stadium at 11.30am.
Admission: On the terrace, £13 adults, £9 students and seniors, £5 for 17-18 year-olds, £1 for under 16s.
The covered away terrace at Crawley is not particularly steep, which impacts on the view of the other end of the pitch. However, it does extend a little way around onto the breadth of the pitch.
Programme: £2.50
Pre-Match Refreshment: As club bars go, Crawley's Redz bar is up probably in the Conference top five (although marks off for the dreadful spelling). There's a fair amount of room, some brickwork and a couple of big screens. I can't remember what the selection of drinks was like, but we're football fans, we just want strong European lager and blonde barmaids, don't we? Actually, I've begun to question my choice of pre-match refreshment in recent months, sometimes lager doesn't quite hit the spot - so anyone who fancies sharing a bottle of chardonnay, I'll be sitting on the wall outside, reading the Guardian and pretending to smoke a roll-up.
A little father away from the ground, across the other side of the underpass, there's the Half Moon: it's a reasonable pub - smart enough inside, a few screens. If you're walking from the station, the Railway is also similarly characterless, but fits the bill for a Saturday afternoon out.
Anecdote of the day: It was the day after St Patrick's Day and the U's were off to Crawley again. Having slept on a floor of a friend's flat in Elephant & Castle the previous night (there's a whole other anecdote to go with that - including a Soho gay bar), I was a bit groggy as I wandered towards the Broadfield. This isn't the story. That came later. After the game, it turned out the underground was playing up, so another U's fan (one I had never before met) had to map a route across London back to King's Cross, and in time for the last train back to Cambridge.
This is like a thriller…after finding a way back, via the Northern Line if I remember, we were left running to the platform as the minutes ticked away. "Is this the Cambridge train?" "Yes," the station chap said. And we were there, and on the way home. I'm convinced that was a far better anecdote when it was slouching in my head, still, we're just coming out of a recession - you can't be too picky.
P.S. the toilets at Crawley are fab.
