A trip north and a bridge with a difference...

A few days ago myself and friend H decided to take a trip to Middlesbrough to see our Ipswich Witches boys take on the Redcar Bears in a Premier League Speedway meeting. The Witches have not had the best of starts really, with the team failing to gel and meetings being lost as a result, so we felt some trepidation ahead of our 235 mile journey, although with a decent weather forecast for the other end, for a change rain was the least of our worries! We were bolstered too by two wins away from home for the team in the previous few days, giving us at least a little help!

We set off at 1pm, car loaded up with plenty of snacks, sweets and drinks to keep us going, and allowing plenty of time in case of delays. So much time, in fact, that by 5pm we'd found the track and were able to head off on my other mission of the day - to see the Middlesborough Transporter Bridge. I'd read plenty about this, but never actually seen it, so as I said to H when we decided on the trip - I'm not going that close to the thing and not going for a look!"

 Impressive, isn't it? A remarkably simple way of overcoming the challenge of needing to allow people and vehicles to cross the river, whilst still maintaining a channel for large vessels to pass beneath. The passengers are carried on a suspended platform - or gondola - with cables connecting it to the trolley that allows it to travel across the gantry at the top - you can just see the cables to the right of the picture below...

...and a better view still in this one...

I just loved its cheery blue and yellow colours too! Imagine having to travel on that as part of your daily commute?!  Pictures taken, we headed back in the direction of the track ready for the speedway - straight to the pits and a nice natter with Ipswich team manager Pete Simmons who determinedly stated that we were going for the win, which was good, because as we said, that was what we'd travelled for! A nice surprise when we discovered that the meeting referee was an old friend too, so more chat with him, before it was time for them to head off and do their relevant jobs, and for us to head for the terraces. A far more determined looking Ipswich side took to the track - we were pleased to see it, even though it did look for a while with the mist coming in off the river that we weren't going to get the meeting through to its end...

Dodgy quality picture from my phone...

Thankfully it never got any worse than that, and we were delighted to end up on the winning side - the 10 or so Witches fans who had made the journey were extremely satisfied with having done so! Well done boys! The night was wrapped up with a nice smooth trip home as well - just under 4 hours and we didn't stop from leaving the track to getting home! Great trip, good company, an item ticked off my "must see" list, and a witches win!

Robyn