When the news came out of a friendly away
in South Africa and the mention of this to the wife sent her
scurrying for the world atlas to see which place would be best
for a so called summer holiday. With this and news of the game
being played in Durban on the 22nd May, I went to the local
travel agent. Eleven nights in Mauritius fly to Durban for the
game and travel with Mat and Carl to Cape Town for the last
couple of nights.
Mauritius was as good as it had been seen on TV the only thing
of note was they are as mad on Football as the English. On the
Sunday in Mauritius I went to see AS Port Louis 2000 play
Illsmili from Egypt in the African Champions League 1st Leg 0-1
to Illsmili and what a poor standard.
Flew to Durban arriving the afternoon of
the game, the Hotel was in the ghetto (big thanks to the wife
for booking the hotel Judith Charmers you are NOT!) 3 streets
back from the beach it was that bad when you ordered a taxi you
were advised to stay inside the hotel till it had arrived. Met
up with Mat & Carl down on the beach with the other usual
suspects from the Cheltenham massive (Stu, Phil, Mica, Paul,
Gary, Paul and Sarah also Mick from Leyland) and enjoyed a bit
of sun before heading off to the Bar to prepare for the game in
usual English style.
The English treated the bloke from the
Halifax advert whipping the crowd up with the contempt he
deserved . If he could be invited to the world speed speaking
contest my vote would be on him. Then to add insult to injury
before the game started Jonno appeared on the big screen
completely ruining their chance of holding the World Cup 2010 as
his ugly mug went out to a worldwide audience. The walk back
from the game to town was a delight.
The next morning we travelled down to Cape
Town, with Mat & Carl arriving just behind us we met up in the
Hotel Radisson on the waterfront and planned what we wanted to
do for the next few days. On Saturday we went wine tasting and
Carl in predictable style got bolloxed after being an expert of
Stowells from Chelsea suddenly became the world’s expert on
South African White. Sunday took us to Cape Point and the PSL
game Hellenic v Supersport with Hellenic needing to do better
that Ajax Cape Town to stay up. With Carl in bold-as-brass mode
got us into the Hospitality Box, where we met a coach from the
youth set-up. He was well informed about SA football telling us
the England game was played in Durban because football is not
big in Cape Town and David Beckham is not as well known in Cape
Town as he is in Durban! The game could not be played in Jo’burg
because "whites are not welcome" and they could not guarantee
our safety. During the game a rather loud and well oiled black
bloke came into the ground shouting that "Cape Town must go down
as they have too many whites in their side". The coach we were
sitting with then had an argument with the said gentleman in
Africaan about what he said. Who said racialism is dead at
football? The game finished with Hellenic losing 3-2 but staying
up. After the game he took us down to the pitch to get some
photos, we had one with the ref on the pitch (see the photos).
Monday saw us all fly home but gave the chance for a quick visit
to the top of Table Mountain.
What a great trip. More of these types of
friendlies please.
Simon Kelly
England for ever.
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