Hope not Hate blog: Balls to poverty...

Day four and we're in Lincoln as I write this in a very quiet, engine-noise free cafe by the Cathedral, filling up on caffeine before our next stint in the bus up to Sheffield where we're spending the night.

This morning found us in a school playing field on the edge of Nottingham, suffering slightly from the effects of the previous night's hotel pub quiz (we were robbed) and being mobbed by hundreds and hundreds of primary school children...

We were there at the invitation of an initiative called Balls to Poverty run by the inspiring Head of Football at South Nottingham College, Joe Sargonis. He also coaches at Nottingham Forest and was helping train a team in South Africa when he came up with the idea of sending footballs to Soweto.

This year he's taking 7,000 balls to 7,000 children all of whom will receive coaching from his 22 player squad of footballers at the college. Today was a practice run with kids from the local Cotgrove primary school and they loved it even on a cold misty morning, running around the playing fields and cheering the bus as it pulled up.

They all had tours of the bus and photographs taken and we kicked some footballs around with them. By 11am we were glad to get back on the bus for a rest...

Next stop was Lincoln, where we pulled up right outside the Cathedral with the Bishop's express permission. Some of the blue rinse brigade weren't best pleased by us spoiling the view, but we were supported by well-wishers and by a completely astonishing and very sprightly 87-year-old war veteran who told us how he'd fought the Nazis in Germany in the 40s and wasn't about to stand for it now in Lincoln.

As a Wireless Operator for the Manchester Bombers in WW2 James Taylor had been shot out of the sky over Germany and dropped to earth on a parachute. He described it so beautifully you could almost see it - him floating down in falling snow with the sound of the dogs barking down below. His last action on the plane had been to eat the piece of rice paper that had all the codes for the German radios on it, as instructed by Bomber Command. His fellow airmen were killed, but he landed safely into wet muddy ground to be captured by the Germans. He then spent years in six different POW camps including the one on which the Great Escape is based. I could have talked to him for hours about his life. You don't get to meet that many people truly deserving of the word hero.

Bishop John was also impressive, explaining why the BNP's ideology is completely at odds with the teachings of the New Testament and how it was important for clergy to make a stand. The BNP are standing in a few wards in Lincoln in the May elections, so it's a real frontline issue for people there.

Lincoln Cathedral is completely beautiful, an architectural masterpiece listed as one of the six most important buildings in Europe. The sun shone on us at last and against a blue sky it was an inspiring sight. It has amazing details like 365 steps up to the top of the tower, the Bishop said, one for every day of the week.

Tomorrow, Sheffield....

Character of the Day: Known locally as the Flying Bishop, John - the Bishop of Lincoln - explained he got his nickname because he has a habit of throwing himself out of planes and off buildings for charity.

Question of the Day: why oh why are there so many low bridges in Lincolnshire? Do they have something against double decker buses round here? Like Maggie Thatcher, our bus is not for turning...

Hero of the day: James Taylor

Tune of the day: Calvin Harris, "I got love for you, if you were born in the Eighties, the Eighties...."

Quote of the day: "They've got a great big bus... a BUS I tell you... outside the Cathedral... Just like that, as if it's perfectly okay to put a great big huge RED bus in front of the Cathedral, a historic building... It's advertising something. Hope apparently..."

U-turn of the day: John the photographer's sat nav took us into a field.

Mirror