Annual Supporters' trip to Andros on 29th May
Eleven years after the first supporters' trip to the island of Andros they return for the tenth anniversary visit, and hopefully a footy match.For those new to the story eleven years or so ago in 2007 the Exeter Exiles and other Grecians were invited to go to the Greek Island of Andros which is the first island in the Cyclades chain. This is reached by a short coach and then ferry ride from Athens airport.
Andros is the home of the Greek Grecian Fans Connection which was founded by the late Jony Brown. Whilst Jony didn’t actually play for Exeter, his first game for Yeovil was against Exeter at the Park and he had fond memories of that time and from that connection he became a supporter of the Grecians.!
The first one took place on Sunday 10 June 2007 when a team consisting of both Exiles and local Exeter based Grecians plus lots of supporters made the journey over to Andros to not only play a match but enjoy a most excellent holiday on the island as well.
That’s Rena and Jony in the foreground of the Polo shirt picture.
End of season trips have taken place every year since with the exception of 2014 when the Centenary visit to Brazil and Rio took precedence and we’ve brought silverware home on many occasions, as can be seen in the Exeter City trophy cabinet.
As stated above this year will be the tenth anniversary trip and will of course be extremely special for that reason.
Plans for the trip are already well advanced with lots of the regulars already booked up to go plus some new faces.
This therefore is a general invite to anyone else that would like to join us as the more the merrier and the locals would love to see more of us there. The extremely warm and hospitable welcome they give us has to be experienced to be believed and, as anyone who has been will tell you, they really look forward to our visit and look after us like family. It will of course be ECFC’s first game of the new season and we are looking for players of all and any ability to take to the excellent 3G pitch.
This year’s main party are departing from Heathrow on Monday 29th May, the day after the League 2 play-off final at Wembley (well you never know!) for Athens airport to arrive on the island on Tuesday 30th May. We’ll be staying on the island until the 8th or 9th (yet to be decided) and then flying home from Athens on the 10th.
However various others are arriving and departing at various times to suit their own diaries with everyone hoping to be on the island for the probable Grecian Cup date, Sunday 4th June.
I act as an unofficial travel agent for the trip and am happy to do as much or as little to help you get there as you need or want from booking flights and ferries to arranging your accommodation and can get you deals on most aspects or advise you on what you need to do if you want to book it yourself.
You can see the accommodation and the island at the following websites:
http://www.villarena.gr/
http://hotel-chryssiakti.gr/en/
http://www.andros.gr/en/
www.visitgreece.gr/en/greek_islands/cyclades/andros
In addition some of us stay at Villa Paradise hosted by the genial Dinos Papachristos who many of us are in contact with on Facebook.
The best way to get to the island is to fly out on a late evening flight from Heathrow to arrive in Athens in time to get the first coach down to the port to get the first ferry to the island and arrive at about midday. This may sound a little arduous but works very well and those who have done find it much easier than they imagine plus it gets you an additional day on the island.
Please feel free to get in touch with Neil Le Millier via email at: neil_le_milliere@btinternet.com if you want any more information or advice or to see more pictures of previous tours.
Already going this year are: Ben Ahrends; Martin Clarke; Jackie Corr; Caroline Costin; Andrew Deamer; Jody Deamer; Garry Dyer; Jane Hooper; Mark Hooper; Sean Hooper; Greg Le Milliere; Julie Le Milliere; Neil Le Milliere; Jenny Lees; Roger Pyne; Steve Rudawski; Chris Woolcott; Quinn Sussex; Spike Sussex; Tina Sussex; Denise Watts; and Andy McCarthy – with a few more in the pipeline.