A great start to the day; we wake, shower, enjoy the African sunshine and devour a large breakfast in the open dining area. Lyn ensures that we are well fed and we set off for the fans match. We arrive at a primary school called Astra Primary and we meet all the kids who are very happy to see us. They produce more songs and dances for us before we walk through the township to the local sports ground. The game kicks off, Dave Bev referees, Skip, Mark and Deano all play although Skip only lasts 5 minutes claiming a heavy breakfast for his poor performance. A 1-1 draw is played out in front of a very large audience of local people who all seem extremely excited that we are there, including some local dignitaries and a whole bunch of security staff brandishing batons, yet somehow it all seems normal.
Straight after the game we jump in the batmobile but are very low on petrol, so I use the satnav to take us to the nearest petrol station not wishing to run out whilst in the middle of a township. Unfortunately Dave Bridge who is following me in the car is panicking a little as he doesn’t know where we are or where we are going. I can’t blame him; some of these places are really intimidating and display signs warning you that you enter at your own risk. We fill up, but nobody here seems to speak English which makes for an interesting exchange of signals etc. I determine that the woman petrol attendant thinks we are the English national team which explains some of the attention we are getting.
We push on and eventually get to the other end of the township and everybody relaxes a little. This time we head for a park and walk which is set up at the local rugby club, park up, grab a hot dog and a beer and set ourselves up for the afternoon. Another beer and we head for the stadium; the local pubs seem really busy so we decide to get in early. The interior of the stadium looks terrific in the afternoon sun and Skip and I set the flag up nearby. The lad putting his flag up next to us is from Mexborough, his name is Colin, one of the Sheffield Wednesday contingent. We chat away and it turns out he knows Hippy very well. The officials here are all a bit fussy, sticking to the letter of the law on all matters, silly really.
We are in the stadium quite early; Mark Chappell picks us out and joins us for the afternoon, as does Jimmy Carrol from Radio Sheffield. At least here we have no queuing for beer or anything else and we chat away quite happily in the afternoon sun. Some of those around us bought their tickets and made travel arrangements when we did, a long time ago, but some had only bought theirs a few days ago and bought cheap air tickets from Durban etc. This World Cup has been a farce from start to finish with regards to tickets, and when I tell one of my neighbours how much time and effort has gone into acquiring ‘caps’ so that I could qualify for official tickets they don’t believe me. It’s all wrong, but then again FIFA have never been interested in the average fan. The beer available in the stadiums is Budweiser, what’s wrong with helping the SA economy and use local beer too? I digress.
The stadium fills up and again looks like a home game with all the English flags and banners. One in particular is a banner that reads ‘Welcome to Scouse Africa!’ We like that one. Hippy bumps into some other Donny fans that are here as well, what a small world it can be at times. The beer continues to flow and when it’s my turn to go guess what, England score! That’s great and so typical. England do look better in this game but still not world beaters. We need a second goal or the USA to draw so then we finish top of the group and then all my plans fall into place. Come on England! The game finishes in a bit of a blur, maybe that’s something to do with all the beer, but we are reasonably happy with the result despite it causing me travel difficulties. So its Germany next in Bloemfontein, a little early perhaps but that’s the luck of the draw. We make our way back to the car, Hippy is briefly arrested for stealing a poster, that’s really funny, but nobody stops me from stealing one that’s stuck to the wall with blu-tack, a nice bit of memorabilia. At the car we decide to buy a few more beers, enjoy some curry and rice and chat with all the locals and England fans doing the same thing. The annoying thing is a young Millwall fan who wants to have a go at everybody, nobody knows why. He then has a pop at me, I can’t remember what he says but I decide it’s time to act, I grab hold of him by the arm lecture him quite loudly and escort him away from the rugby ground. He doesn’t come back! All mouth and no trousers!
We arrive back at Crislin lodge clothed in darkness, very boisterous, and we find it funny that we are all telling each other to be quiet as it then dawns on us that it’s still only 8 o’clock! We make our way to the bar, which is closed, we ask if we can buy beer and a very terse no is all we get, and so we switch on the TV, drink our own beer and wine and eventually retire to our mud huts, exhausted, happy and very drunk. Another great day.
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