Spot to Spot

By Stephen Scorer

I was going to use the term "As the crow flies", but in this modern day, I will use a more suitable device called the Imagination Drone. I decided to write this series because I love most sports and I enjoy travelling and exploring the countryside.

"As the crow flies" or "in a beeline" is an idiom for the shortest distance between two points (on a map, disregarding the vagaries of intervening terrain).

   So we are going to go on a 176.11 kilometre (109.43 Miles) straight line Drone filled journey from the centre circle at The Glyndwr University Racecourse Ground to the centre circle of The Cardiff City Stadium, taking in the interesting views, sights and mostly factual stories along the way, but there might be some fictional twists added for good measure.

     Starting from the North East corner of Wales then taking a South-to-South West flight path down to the Welsh Capital, on an average car journey from Wrexham to Cardiff, depending on what route you would have taken, the journey would probably have taken about 4 hours. Now for the I.D (imagination drone) to take that amount of time, it would have to travel at approximately 12.2 meters per second, but we are taking a much leisurely approach to this and our journey will take 9 hours, 47 minutes and 2 seconds, averaging a speed of just 5 meters per second.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Scorer
• Release date: Sep 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386551638

Stephen Scorer

Well, I suppose this bit is all about me, well that is going to be boring and a rubbish ending for this unique book! I was born in Worksop in Nottinghamshire. Yes I’m a Robin Hood follower and a lover of the greatest super reds in the world, no not Liverpool or those other imposters like United, I’m a Tricky Tree, yes the mighty Nottingham Forest, are we still living in the past, I would like to think that those times might come back… someday. I love most sports and I have been quite successful as a Track & Field athlete, if not involved with any of the running variety. Then it would be the motorized stuff that gets the adrenaline rushing, from Stock car racing, rallying to even Truck racing, I have been lucky enough to sample these from close quarters. I was going to blast this section with a load of personal data… ZZzzz. All that is the need, for now, is that I love animals, especially Dogs & Cats (that would make a great film!) and that I am a gay father (that would make an even better film!)

Book preview

SPOT  TO SPOT

By Stephen Scorer

Contents

SPOT  TO SPOT

By Stephen Scorer

Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Scorer.

Introduction

Prologue

With Thanks

Take off from Glyndwr

Owain, The Finger and Thumb Footballer

Wrexham to the English Border

The Noisy River

Chirk

Back into Wales and Beyond

BORDER LANGUAGE

(Iaith Ffin)

Ode to the Severn Bridge

Iuan, The Smallest Racer in Wales.

Border Hoping the Next 30km

Powis Castle

Stepping Stones

At Last Back into Wales

The Battle of Bryn Glas (22 June 1402)

Blackwood and Beyond

The Welsh Lyrics to the song:

And an English version of the Lyrics (there are many different ones):

M4 to Ninian Park

Good Guy Finished Last! But Still Won?

Descent into the Bluebirds Nest

England 2016

Men of Harlech

After Thoughts

About The Author

THE END

Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Scorer.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the author

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2017

This edition, 2018

ISBN 9781 975976 415 (Amazon)

Introduction

After finishing my first book, which was all about my struggles with mental health and in between doing mass research on various horror and thriller stories that I have planned, it was time for the annual NaNoWriMo, which is held every November.

This would be my first attempt at this; in which you need to write a 50,000 plus word novel in the month of November and me being, well me, I wanted to do something that I have not done before and what was a little different.

That’s when I came up with this travel book of sorts, you can probably guess that I failed at the NaNoWriMo 2016 by about 30,000 words, but not to let the work go to waste I decided to carry on the Imagination and Drone filled journey of discovery.

Yes, we will start and finish at two of Wales's most iconic football stadiums and football teams, but what lies in between these two? Well, it surprised me as well and I hope that readers will find my findings interesting, helpful and maybe even imaginary and funny.

On the straight-line trip from the North East of Wales to the South of Wales, we fly directly over 41 rivers, 15 mountains and hills, 7 parks and nature reserves, 10 railway lines, 3 golf courses, quarries and schools, 2 hospitals and 2 cemeteries and 1 church. These are all directly underneath the drone as we pass over them, and then there are the places we stop off at and visit along the way.

This has been very interesting to write about and aided in discovering new places for myself, I hope to inspire readers to go out and visit some of these, I know I have started to go out and visit them.

Prologue

This book is the first in a series of books which will take a look at the local areas we pass over. I was going to use the term As the crow flies, but in this modern day, I will use a more suitable device called the Imagination Drone. I decided to write this series because I love most sports and I enjoy travelling and exploring the countryside.

As the crow flies or in a beeline is an idiom for the shortest distance between two points (on a map, disregarding the vagaries of intervening terrain).

So we are going to go on a 176.11 kilometre (109.43 Miles) straight line Drone filled journey from the centre circle at The Glyndwr University Racecourse Ground to the centre circle of The Cardiff City Stadium, taking in the interesting views, sights and mostly factual stories along the way, but there might be some fictional twists added for good measure.

Starting from the North East corner of Wales then taking a South-to-South West flight path down to the Welsh Capital, on an average car journey from Wrexham to Cardiff, depending on what route you would have taken, the journey would probably have taken about 4 hours. Now for the I.D (imagination drone) to take that amount of time, it would have to travel at approximately 12.2 meters per second, but we are taking a much leisurely approach to this and our journey will take 9 hours, 47 minutes and 2 seconds, averaging a speed of just 5 meters per second.

Occasionally the I.D will send a smaller P.O.D (Picture Opportunity Detector) if it sees something it likes or of interest, it will go on a smaller fact-filled journey taking us along with it, just for the ride.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, as an unmanned aircraft system (UAS).

––––––––

What makes the Imagination Drone (I.D) work?, It can be controlled from a single point or a control room, it as a GPS system and a point to point system that lets the controller map out a route of any kind. It weighs 420 grams and depending on conditions, it can reach a top speed of 8 meters per second, with dimensions of 1600mm in length a width of 240mm and standing height set at 150mm. Having a 1TB of onboard memory at its disposal and a backup with a 2GB memory card with a live video feed that is HD quality at 1280 x 720p (30 fps).  It can also snap high-quality JPG photo’s, you will not miss much of the action and with an onboard radar system, it can occasionally pinpoint those interesting places and views along its flight path.

The Global Positioning System (GPS), also known as Navstar GPS or simply Navstar, is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

The modern toy Drones only have a battery life of minutes, we needed something a little better than that. Therefore, we designed a drone with a rechargeable battery linked to an onboard mini generator, which is powered by two tube turbines set on either side of the drone, so as long as the drone is moving forward there will be power flowing back into the battery. Also on board is a smaller recharge station that has a trickle feed for the Picture Opportunity Detector (P.O.D). The drone has four swivel propellers that allow pinpointing accuracy when flying, the body is made up of a Polycarbonate compound (the same used in riot shields) that is covered in a top-secret skin made from a light bending material called Quantum Stealth.

Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily worked, moulded, and thermoformed.

The P.O.D is made up of the same Polycarbonate body and Quantum Stealth skin that is found on the larger I.D. It also needs four propellers but these are in a fixed position which enables it to detach and reattach to the underbelly of the drone, weighing in at just 200 grams and with a maximum speed of just 4 meters per second the I.D needs to be selective when to release it. it does boast a 4GB internal memory where it can store pictures and videos, with dimensions of 100mm in length, 120mm in width and a standing height of just 70mm it is quite tiny, which is a blessing with it being able to go unnoticed on its short trips out.

With Thanks

It is with great thanks and appreciation that I would like to show towards the Wrexham Museum and The Wrexham Tourist Information Centre. This second edition of the novelty trip advisory book was made because these two important places in the town centre at Wrexham happily put this book on display. I will always be grateful for this and the opportunity to do so.

Thanks, Steve

Diolch.

Take off from Glyndwr

We will start our journey from the centre spot in the middle of the Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium, which is home to both Wrexham Football Club and the North Wales Crusaders (Rugby League) since starting to write the strange travel book the Cru has started to play their home games at the Queensway Athletic Stadium in another part of Wrexham.

The Racecourse is the oldest international football stadium in the world and is listed in the Guinness book of records for that reason; the first international match was held in March 1877 it was a rematch between Wales and Scotland with the visitors running out 2:0 winners. It can also be noted that Wales have played matches there more than on any other football ground.

Glyndŵr was one of six districts of Clwyd between 1974 and 1996. The district was named after Owain Glyndŵr, who lived in Glyndyfrdwy for a while. On 1 April 1996, the district was dissolved, with parts going to each of the three principal areas of Denbighshire, Powys and Wrexham.

The current capacity at the Racecourse is set at 15,550, with the record attendance being set for a match between Wrexham and Manchester United in 1957, 34,445 people watched the Fourth round FA cup game that United won five to nothing. Wrexham Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wrexham, Wales. Formed in 1864, they are the oldest club in Wales and the third oldest professional football team in the world.

Here are some interesting Records concerning players for the club; their most capped player was Dennis Lawrence he played 89 times for Trinidad & Tobago, 49 of these whilst playing for Wrexham. The most goals scored comes down to only one player and he was Tommy Bamford, scoring a total of 174 goals from 1928 to 1934 and also scoring the most goals in one season with 44 in the 1933-34 season and whilst knocking all these in he went on to gain the most hat-tricks scored with an impressive 16. He did not set the record for the most goals in a game though; this accolade went to Andy Morrell in February 2000 whilst playing against Merthyr Tydfil in a cup game he managed to score 7 goals.

Appearances can only be one player and that was Arfon Griffiths, he managed to play 592 times for the club over a twenty-year period. The youngest and oldest players were Billy Jones playing against Tranmere Rovers at the age of 46 and a young Ken Roberts playing against Bradford Park Avenue when he was 15 years and 158 days old.

Some notable club records are; that in a match played against Hartlepool United in March 1962, Wrexham would gain their highest league win, thumping the pool ten goals to one, this would be the first time in a match that three hat tricks would be netted also. On the other end of the scale they managed to get beat nine to nothing against Brentford on October 1963, whilst in division 3 this is still their worst league defeat to date.

They managed a ten game winning streak at the back end of the 2002-2003 seasons with their longest unbeaten run coming in between January 1902 and November 1902, remaining unbeaten for 20 games. Whilst the transfer fees will not be in the realms of stupid money the likes of Manchester United and City splash out, they did manage to receive a transfer fee of £800,000 for Bryan Hughes in 1997 from Birmingham City and only paying out a fee of £212,000 to Liverpool in 1978 for the services of Joey Jones.

Rising up from the spot, we can see the four main stands of the ground, The Kop or Crispin Lane End, The Yale Stand, which is home for the Centenary Club. The Glyndwr University Stand or The Marston Stand, sometimes if the away support is large enough, they will use this stand as well as part of The Yale Stand and finally the newest of the stands The Mold Road Stand, it was originally named after Chairman Pryce Griffiths and this is also home to the restaurant, The Changing Rooms.

The stadium is now a part of the much larger site of the university with the renaming of the stadium from The Racecourse to the Glyndŵr University Racecourse Stadium after the 2011 acquisition. When I first moved up into Wrexham the university was named the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education or NEWI for short and quickness, it did not gain its university status until 2008, four years after becoming a member of the University of Wales.

The renaming of the university from NEWI to Glyndŵr saw the university is named after the famous 15th-century Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr, even back in those days, he suggested that there should be learning establishments or universities throughout Wales.

The university has two sites in the town, the other being close by on Regent Street; this one is the site for the Art and Design courses. The 93 acre Plas Coch site of the Wrexham Glyndŵr University is much larger and it can hold over 70 seminars throughout its many suites, to add to these they have the additional conference suites and lecture theatres, they also have a well-equipped library and learning resource facilities.

Other areas or centres include the workshops and laboratories, there is a Centre for the Creative Industries and a Centre for