Archive for the ‘ABC Selfstore - in sport’ Category

What do I do with all of that St.Georges stuff…

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

The England Football team are home early after another traditionally disappointing display from our squad of World-class players.  It seems no one explained to them that the World Cup is the best event for World class players to show off their World class talents.

If you – like us – got stuck into showing your support for our national team, it’s likely you’ll have adorned your house, car and probably body with various interpretations of the St George flag.  Last Sunday you might even have gone as far as having your face painted, squeezed countless lung-fulls of breath through a Red and White vuvuzela and chanted En-ger-land, En-ger-land. Oh, and probably shouted something we shouldn’t repeat here about the referee.

Following England’s swift exit we’re all facing a dilemma.  Do we leave all the flags in place until the tournament has finished – or take it all down in protest at just how poor our team were?

Either way it’ll be consigned to storage until the next tournament England qualify for. Let’s hope that our World Class abilities resurface and it’s UEFA Euro 2012.

When is a pig’s bladder the same as a spherical polyhedron?

Friday, June 11th, 2010

…when it’s a football.

With all eyes on South Africa for kick-off of the World cup on Friday 11th June we thought we’d take a look at the earliest records of the beautiful game – and work out how many modern balls we could fit into our most popular unit.

The world’s oldest surviving football was found in 1981 at Stirling Castle, Scotland.   Dated from around 1540 it survived – stored in the roof space above the Queen’s chamber – for some 440 years.  It’s 440 year storage preservation is even more impressive given that it was made of Cow hide and used a Pig’s bladder as the air sack to inflate the ball.

Whether it was accidentally hoofed up there by an over enthusiastic tradesman who was on a break from renovating the chamber or, as has been suggested, purposefully left there to ward-off spirits – is anyone’s guess.  How nice to think of the castle courtiers chalking up their scores for ‘ye olde keepie-uppie’ on the castle walls – though the court jester would have had a harder time dribbling the ball in those jangly curly toed slippers.

At around half the size of a modern ball the Stirling relic shares little with it’s modern counterpart.  The official FIFA World Cup ball – the Jabulani made by Adidas – is packed with the latest synthetic technology.  It hasn’t been greatly received by players, so – Adidas – if you’re struggling to sell them and need somewhere to store stock – by our calculations we reckon you could fit 972 in one of our 50sq ft units.  Just be careful when you open the door…

How many footballs can you fit in a self-storage unit?

How many footballs can you fit in a self-storage unit? 972 by our reckoning.

Harry Tee wins under 11s player of the season

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Harry Tee has beaten off stiff competition to win ABC Selfstore Player of the Season for the Battersea Ironsides Mini Rugby under 11 squad. The 10 year old is one of the clubs upcoming stars who helped them reach quarter finals in the Surrey County Festival Championships in March, where they narrowly missed out on a semi-final place being beaten by Richmond on penalties. 

David Gardiner-Hill, under 11s Team Manager said, “Harry Tee thoroughly deserves this hard fought award. He’s part of a hardworking team that some of the leading rugby clubs in the country, Richmond, Effingham, Rosslyn Park and Kings Mini regard as a ‘team to beat’ in 2008/9. I want to congratulate all the 11s players on their efforts and thank the team sponsors ABC Selfstore for their support.”  He continued, “All our minis teams have made Surrey sit up and notice the new inner city kids on the block.  We’re going from strength to strength with the under 9s, 10, and 12s all of whom are also finalists at Surrey County Championship and finalists in the Harlequins Curtain Raiser Cup.”

ABC sponsors the team.  Paul Gray, Assistant Manager at ABC Selfstore, Wandsworth and a senior player at the club, said,  “ABC Selfstore have been sponsoring the Battersea Ironsides mini rugby under 11s for over three years, providing team kit and other support. I want to congratulate the whole team on their really solid showing this year and Harry Tee on winning the ABC Selfstore Player of the Season.  I’m also delighted to confirm ABC Selfstore will be sponsoring the side for the 2009/10 season.”