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Aug. 9th, 2008 09:08 pmDuring last night's marathon sort-out I turned up the user's manual for my mobile. All this time I've been ascribing the fact it doesn't work abroad to its being a crappy old model...and it turns out you have to phone Vodafone and ask them to set it up to work in any foreign country before you travel. Doh!! *facepalm*
Hauled my carcass out of bed just before 6 am for Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson's first race. Unfortunately, the delay, due to lack of wind, to Ben Ainslie's first race meant the two overlapped almost completely, and BBCi opted to stay with Ben. You'd have thought that the very least they could have done was, once Ben had crossed the line at the end of his race, cut to the lady Ynglingers for their climax, especially as the British girls, who'd been well down the field, were staging a magnificent surge through the field to take second place. No such luck - all we saw was the boats from Ben's race sitting around.
At last, off to St Albans for the first match of the season. When Simon and Tracey got on the coach, Hayley confessed to Tracey "I forgot the white mice." Towards the end of last season, Hayley and Tracey ate chocolate white mice at every game and, as Hawks went on a run of away wins, it became a superstition. I told Hayley there ought to be a newsagent's in St Albans selling them.
"There'd better be."
To be honest the whole day was a bit of a damp squib. Rain followed us everywhere we went, all day without a break. We had 40 people today, enough for a full size coach, but today we got the Ryanair treatment. There were no nibbles provided, and no stop in either direction - straight there and straight back - although in the latter case this was because several people were going to a 70th birthday party back in Havant. There were Golden Goal tickets as usual - for this season they'll be for the minute when the first goal is scored, not the player - but no Blackout this time.
We arrived in St Albans around 1 pm, parked about 200 yards from the ground and walked through the rain to the nearest pub, The Crown. There I ordered a very tasty chicken breast in honey and mustard; it was meant to come with new potatoes and seasonal vegetables, but as I was sitting down with a Bulmers after placing my order the waitress approached to say the chef was sorry but they were out of both new potatoes and vegetables. So I had to settle for chips.
Hawks played in their orange third kit. Apparently our first choice colours, white, were deemed too similar to St Albans' yellow. That wouldn't have mattered as, bizarrely, St Albans played in their change strip of blue with gold trim. When the teams came out of the tunnel and lined up prior to a minute's silence, Malc said to me "[malmo58], don't get excited, it's not Holland!" Simon and others thought we looked more like Blackpool.
The mood of high optimism about this season that's been all around Westleigh Park this summer lasted until the second minute of the match, when a St Albans winger ran to the edge of the box and fired home to put us 1-0 down. For the whole of the first half Hawks had no width in midfield and no strength up front, and never looked like getting back into the match.
At half time Tracey was delighted to be one of the three winners of the raffle. I joined a large line of Hawks in queuing, in the rain, for the burger van, whose bill of fare was decidedly basic. Burgers, hot dogs and chips, and, er, that was it. No bacon rolls, no chocolate, no crisps. Many people lamented the van being sold out of hot drinks, but I was craving Pepsi anyway, which they had.
I got back onto the covered terrace for the second half to find only half a dozen Hawks still there. We few were surrounded by St Albans fans. All the Hawk hardcore were now standing on the open terrace behind the goal, in the pouring rain, including the Scotch Egg Boys who'd put their flag up. Bloody loons.
Ian Simpemba headed an equaliser from a corner. Hawks staged a couple more attacks which came to nothing but succeeded in holding on to a point. That'll do me.
And so all aboard the express coach, non-stop to Westleigh Park. When Tracey appeared I asked her what she'd won : it was £10 worth of Waterstone's vouchers. Thank goodness the rain reduced to spits for the duration of the walk to the station.
Hauled my carcass out of bed just before 6 am for Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson's first race. Unfortunately, the delay, due to lack of wind, to Ben Ainslie's first race meant the two overlapped almost completely, and BBCi opted to stay with Ben. You'd have thought that the very least they could have done was, once Ben had crossed the line at the end of his race, cut to the lady Ynglingers for their climax, especially as the British girls, who'd been well down the field, were staging a magnificent surge through the field to take second place. No such luck - all we saw was the boats from Ben's race sitting around.
At last, off to St Albans for the first match of the season. When Simon and Tracey got on the coach, Hayley confessed to Tracey "I forgot the white mice." Towards the end of last season, Hayley and Tracey ate chocolate white mice at every game and, as Hawks went on a run of away wins, it became a superstition. I told Hayley there ought to be a newsagent's in St Albans selling them.
"There'd better be."
To be honest the whole day was a bit of a damp squib. Rain followed us everywhere we went, all day without a break. We had 40 people today, enough for a full size coach, but today we got the Ryanair treatment. There were no nibbles provided, and no stop in either direction - straight there and straight back - although in the latter case this was because several people were going to a 70th birthday party back in Havant. There were Golden Goal tickets as usual - for this season they'll be for the minute when the first goal is scored, not the player - but no Blackout this time.
We arrived in St Albans around 1 pm, parked about 200 yards from the ground and walked through the rain to the nearest pub, The Crown. There I ordered a very tasty chicken breast in honey and mustard; it was meant to come with new potatoes and seasonal vegetables, but as I was sitting down with a Bulmers after placing my order the waitress approached to say the chef was sorry but they were out of both new potatoes and vegetables. So I had to settle for chips.
Hawks played in their orange third kit. Apparently our first choice colours, white, were deemed too similar to St Albans' yellow. That wouldn't have mattered as, bizarrely, St Albans played in their change strip of blue with gold trim. When the teams came out of the tunnel and lined up prior to a minute's silence, Malc said to me "[malmo58], don't get excited, it's not Holland!" Simon and others thought we looked more like Blackpool.
The mood of high optimism about this season that's been all around Westleigh Park this summer lasted until the second minute of the match, when a St Albans winger ran to the edge of the box and fired home to put us 1-0 down. For the whole of the first half Hawks had no width in midfield and no strength up front, and never looked like getting back into the match.
At half time Tracey was delighted to be one of the three winners of the raffle. I joined a large line of Hawks in queuing, in the rain, for the burger van, whose bill of fare was decidedly basic. Burgers, hot dogs and chips, and, er, that was it. No bacon rolls, no chocolate, no crisps. Many people lamented the van being sold out of hot drinks, but I was craving Pepsi anyway, which they had.
I got back onto the covered terrace for the second half to find only half a dozen Hawks still there. We few were surrounded by St Albans fans. All the Hawk hardcore were now standing on the open terrace behind the goal, in the pouring rain, including the Scotch Egg Boys who'd put their flag up. Bloody loons.
Ian Simpemba headed an equaliser from a corner. Hawks staged a couple more attacks which came to nothing but succeeded in holding on to a point. That'll do me.
And so all aboard the express coach, non-stop to Westleigh Park. When Tracey appeared I asked her what she'd won : it was £10 worth of Waterstone's vouchers. Thank goodness the rain reduced to spits for the duration of the walk to the station.
