gives us a goal

Newlands Cafe

In the Southside we are well sorted for specialist shops for all occasions and over the coming months we will be pin pointing some of the most useful. If anyone has any suggestions of good shops to visit then let us know - the odder the better.

The shop in question here is not an odd one but with a recent spate of shop closures it is becoming semi unique.

For the past few weeks, I've been playing football with a hole in my right boot which I have been gratefully using as an excuse for my shooting. The problem with this however was that every now and then, when the ball caught my foot at the right angle, I was basically kicking it with a bare foot, which was rather uncomfortable. I decided I'd had enough and set search through Shawlands for some new boots.

There used to be a Sports shop called Morrisons as part of Shawlands Arcade but it has been closed for a while now. But I knew there was a second store down towards Newlands. We wandered down that end only to discover that it was closed and on closer inspection appeared to have closed down. I was just about to give up and resign myself to having to go to one of the larger stores when I spotted a note on the door advising that they had actually moved further up the road to a unit opposite the new Tesco mini mart.

So we crossed over the road, purchased a quarter of Jelly Teddies from the Newlands Cafe's excellent sweetie selection and walked along to John Semples sports shop.

Its a small shop, but it is extremely packed full of every possible sporting item you would care to mention and the bloke that served me was very helpful and gave me a choice of 4 different boots. I decided not to be ruled by the latest fashions and opted out of a red or a white pair (if you turn up in a pair of those then you had better be good or face team ridicule) and I went for a pair of classic black Pumas. They seem comfortable enough and I feel they have many goals in them, I look forward to trying them out on Wednesday night.

We didn't really chat to the owner properly. We're still getting the hang of this investigative business when it comes to gathering info for this blog but we did find out a few interesting facts - 1. the original John Semple sits in a comfy chair by the window, 2. the original John Semple opened the store 27 years ago, 3. the guy who served us is taking part in a professional bowls championship - we shall try to find out where and when and maybe someone can go along and give us a report.

EDIT: There must be something wrong with these new boots as well. No goals and I was completely exhausted after half an hour.