Eleven cyclists from Staines Town FC have completed a 55-mile cycle ride taking in 11 Premier and Football League grounds along the way, writes Stuart Moore.

They set of from Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace FC, at 10.20am and didn’t arrive until their final destination, Brentford’s Griffin Park, until just before 8pm.

The route from south London immediately took the riders uphill, but after that it was fairly plain-sailing for the crew as they dropped in at Millwall and Charlton Athletic.

They enjoyed a break when continuing their passage via the Woolwich Ferry in order to get north of the river and on to Upton Park, home of West Ham United.

Their, the team were taken pitchside for a photo opportunity as well as taking to the podium in the press room - before their new manager Avram Grant had an opportunity to do so.

Upon departing Upton Park at 1.30pm, the team travelled to Leyton Orient where they enjoyed a packed lunch including plenty of fruit and energy boosts was taken and then onto Spurs and Arsenal with again.

An unexpected invitation to go pitch-side at an eerily silent White Hart Lane stadium was gratefully accepted.

The next leg was arguably the most challenging as the riders traversed central London from the Emirates to Loftus Road in the west, home of Queen’s Park Rangers being some eight miles across town as the team carefully weaved their way along the Euston Road, down Bayswater and then on to Holland Park, all the time being extra mindful of the heavy traffic and many obstacles.

The day’s only casualty came on the last turn approaching QPR when one of the cyclists had to take evasive action to dodge a wrecklessly reversing vehicle which ran-over and badly damaged his bike.

Using the only spare, he continued on regardless and the team battled on to Chelsea and Fulham before turning into Griffin Park to complete the ride.

The 11 riders - Kim Sherwood, Chloe-Roseanne Boon, Jerome Chandiram, Paul Fleckney, Michael Hoggett, Ian Lathey, Stuart Moore, Andre Scarlett (first team star,) James Shore, Mark Warren and Dave Woollands, hope to raise more than £3,000 for charities such as St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, Help for Heroes, Cancer Reserach UK, Teenage Cancer Trust, Homestart, RSPCA and the Anaphyllaxis Campaign.

The en-route support team were organiser Ian Byers, Angie Payne, John Blair, David Brown, Boo Matthews, Chris Boyce, Andy Talbot Jamie Moore and Patrick Nixon.

The group was indebted to generous benefactor Sam Sharma from Rico Logistics Limited who kindly donated a sum to cover the costs of transport, catering and other necessary requirements to make the day run smoothly.