This piece was first published in the Colchester United programme yesterday.
Happy New Year to all U’s fans. Welcome to any Walsall visitors as well. We hope that you like our town. We LOVE it so much that we spend any spare time bashing out blog posts about Colchester rather than actually enjoying it.
When a man is tired of Colchester he is tired of blogging.
But we’ve found plenty of events to keep those blog posts ticking over. Sport, literacy and comedy – it’s all there. It’s probably all there right in front of you as you read these words at the Community Stadium…
Let’s start with the sport. The Halfords Tour Series confirmed that it will be returning to Colchester with top class cycling on 30th May. This is the fourth time that the city centre cycling has come to Colchester.
It’s quite a coup. The semi-pro cyclists love the pacey circuit; the Borough Council loves the hour-long TV exposure. This is the first time that the Tour Series comes to Colchester during half term week. Let’s hope that it’s not as wet as it was in 2012.
We’ve also blogged about korfball. Korf what, you ask? It’s a Dutch sport that’s a bit like basketball and netball. It is a mixed game – boys mark boys, girls mark girls and then it all gets a little jiggy in the bar afterwards.
The Colchester Wildcats are a new club that is putting Colchester on the korfball map. Which is quite a claim. Training takes place at the Academy on Tuesday evenings, 8-9pm. All are welcome. This IS NOT a dating club. Sport is far much more serious than that.
Also coming with a serious reputation is the Essex Book Festival. Except the 2013 schedule looks quite light-hearted when it returns to Colchester throughout March. We’ve blogged how Roger McGough and Sandi Toksvig are the big hitters. The schedule also includes events throughout many local venues, and not requiring a dictionary vocabulary just to enjoy.
Well good.
Keeping it cultural and we wrote about the plans put forward by Colchester Borough Council to convert the old Police Station on Queen Street into a creative hub. Sounds a little… arty. Don’t worry. It’s all about making the most of empty buildings and helping to regenerate St Botolph’s.
And finally down at the other end of the town and we’ve blogged about the brilliant new programme just published by Colchester Arts Centre. Comedy, bands and booze – and that’s just the events for January.
Not a bad to place to live.
We really should get out more.
