|
|
BVC REPORT - PAOLO’S DIARY
I was the only BVC member to make this trip to watch the friendly match between England and Portugal at Villa Park. I had decided to go to this match instead of going to the QPR home match, leaving the rest of the BVC to get behind the stags whilst I was cheering on Sven and the boys at Villa Park. I was accompanied on this trip by one of my mates, Shaun, who is a regular to England Home matches, along with myself and usually Cheggers. I’m not really sure whether it was a lack of cash or the fear of getting drunk which prevented Cheggers from embarking on New Street Station and the pubs of Birmingham.
Me and Shaun met up at Mansfield at 8.00am, 8 hours before kick-off, to enable us to make it to Birmingham for the opening of the pubs. We arrived at Nottingham to find that the train to Birmingham had been delayed by half an hour. We put this down to experience and the fact that we were using the rail network in the U.K. The fact that the train was late ensured that by the time we arrived in brummie land, the pubs would be open and in action. The expected large amount of passengers and fans travelling on our train, proved incorrect as we managed to get seats, which is unusual on England match days. We arrived in Birmingham at around 10.45am, met by the usual ticket checkpoint and Police waving their camcorders. The fact that the alcoholic element of cheggers wasn’t present, ensured that we got past without any searches or questions!!
We immediately popped to a few shops to pick up some food, before heading through the streets of India to reach our first pub of the day. The pub was a Weatherspoons called “The Square Peg” It certainly wasn’t a cheap Weatherspoon’s pub by any accounts, with bottles costing £2.30. The pub has the longest bar in Europe, and believe me, it was a very large one!! The only problem was that only 3 bar staff were on duty, leaving England fans queuing for their drinks. The pub was full of England fans, which was excellent, but the arrival of Riot Police with camcorders proved that hooligans were in town. One officer gave me a funny look but he soon passed and his attention became focused on a group of lads. We supped up and headed towards an area, which has a selection of decent drinking places. We walked down the street and saw a gangster in a red sports car. We seriously thought that they had tracked us down from Leyton!! We went in pub called “Mr Q’s” which was empty. The bar had apparently ran out of pint glasses which seemed strange but had a selection of pool tables to provide the entertainment. I turned on the class as I won the first game 1-0 in an empty pub!! We started a second game and the next customer came in, followed by more and more England fans. I continued my success by taking the 2nd game. The pub was now filling up nicely and all of the pool tables were now being used. We decided to make the next game our last and unfortunately I lost, but won 2-1 overall!! We were now bankrupt after paying £1 per game!!! We visited 2 more pubs in the vicinity, before making a decision to head down towards New Street Station, for the train to Aston station. We arrived at New Street at 2.45pm to find Police swarming the outside of the station. The massive row of Riot vans proved that this was a large-scale operation!!
We went to the platform only to find the Police blocking the stairs, saying that the platform was full. We contemplated charging them but he had every device you could imagine. He also looked very hard, so the chances of getting to the train were very slim!! We were told that the next train would leave from platform 8A, so we headed there along with about another 300 England fans!! We waited and waited, but no train, until an announcement was made. “Would England fans please note that the train will now leave from platform 1A”. This left hundreds of fans charging towards this platform to enable them to get onto the train. We didn’t really care whom we knocked over as long as we made the train!! We did make it and our daily exercise was complete!! It certainly showed that I am still fit and can run fast when I’m required to!!
The journey to Villa Park was short and we stepped off the train to find a few pubs nearby. We couldn’t go in them as it would have taken years to get served and I would have probably still been waiting for my drink at this minute!! The fans were in voice and chants of “England,England” were echoed around the local streets and Aston Station.
We started the 10-minute walk to Villa Park, passing a large park, which has been nicknamed “Cheggers Park” as there was people sat on the grass drinking cans of lager. There were lots of empty cans and beer bottles, showing that despite Cheggers being absent, his park was still in full swing!!! We passed some flats and a gangster was on the balcony with a bottle in his hand. I looked up and he was staring towards us, I think he may have been the owner of a certain red sports car!! We arrived at the ground at around 3.20pm, just in time to have a walk around the impressive Villa Park. The chants were heard from the Car Parks, showing that England fans were in a positive mood about the prospects. We passed a group of Portugal fans as we headed for the Holte End, where we were located for the match. We got into the ground to be met by a line of Police!! I told them that Cheggers wasn’t coming, so maybe they could go home and get some proper work done!! We struggled to our seats through a mass of people, getting there just in time for the teams coming out. The view was very good; we were to the left of the corner flag, only 7 rows back. The Stewards were not really bothered about the supporters standing up, leaving the fears of the toothless steward at Field Mill, in the back of our minds!! I’m sure that if he would have been there and acted like he does at the Mill, he would have probably had a few more teeth missing this morning!!! The tooth fairy wouldn’t have been visiting him either!!! It was a good game, with England having an excellent first half but a terrible 2nd half. I personally blame the amount of substitutions that are made at one time.
After the game, the fun started. It took us about 15 minutes to actually get out of Villa Park, why there was congestion getting out, I will never know, as I could have drove a bus through the exit gates. I reckon that people just walk slowly to piss everyone else off. We walked towards Aston Station, knowing that it would not be able to withstand the hundreds heading towards it. We were considering hiring a speedboat in an attempt to beat everyone to the station. The problem was that our BVC member, Pete Boat, wasn’t in Birmingham!! This left us hoping that everyone would turn off and go in a different direction. We eventually reached a heavily policed Aston Station, only to be told by a pig, that we had to join the end of the queue, which was a very long one!! We contemplated jumping the queue on several occasions but decided to set an example for the BVC.
We had a connection to make at New Street and the fear of missing it, developed. The queue got longer and longer, and you had to feel sorry for the people at the back. We wondered about walking it into Birmingham, but we were told that it was a good 2 miles. We were provided with a little entertainment from a few fans who thought that jumping barbwire fences would be a fun thing to do. It was lucky for them that they didn’t slip or it would have been a blood bath. The fun didn’t stop there as another group of fans thought that it would be funny to jump a fence and run up the railway embankment. The impatience was starting to show and fans wondered when the queue would start to move. The amazement set in when the queue moved and moved, leaving us to wonder how everyone would fit onto the train. A pig said that a train was on the platform, so we ran the fastest of our entire lives, up the stairs and piled onto the train. I was sure that more fans could have got onto the train as people blocked the door area but there was plenty of space in the carriages.
We arrived at New Street Station in time for our train to Nottingham, which surprisingly was empty. I don’t know where everyone had gone, but obviously the attraction wasn’t New Street. I started to wonder whether the 2 pimps had arrived within Birmingham, as Ben’s mam and Hib’s mam, would have made a fortune on the day.
We boarded the train, which started to fill with more people. We were then asked to move over so that some foreigners could sit down. I was furious with their attitude towards us and I started to consider that the English are now slowly losing their country. I was ready to confront them about their attitude, but personally taking on those 3 would have meant taking on the entire city of Birmingham. I decided to leave it as I didn’t want to spoil an enjoyable day. The journey home
was like being sat on a train from Bombay to Delhi!!
We arrived in Nottingham with time to have a walk around. We went outside to find another entertainment session. We looked across the road at a pub/hotel, only to look up and see a woman getting undressed!! It was unbelievable, she had the light on and the curtains wide open!! I think that she may have thought that Cheggers was going to be with us, and by the looks of her, he would have been welcome to her!!
We headed back to the station where we got on the train to Mansfield. It was the end of a good day out and the thoughts are now focused on the next BVC England trip in October at Southampton. I’ll probably be the only BVC member again, but we should have Cheggers available for the Turkey match in April 2003.
Paolo - BVC England Member