![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Show Must Go On
Apr. 27th, 2025 09:23 pmHaving heard rumours that London Seaward weren’t going to survive past the summer, I had to head up there today for their last game of the season, against AFC Sudbury Women, in case it was the last ever. The tube from Waterloo was full of people carrying signs and wearing T-shirts in support of London Marathon runners. Felt a touch of nostalgia emerging onto the eastbound Central Line platform at Stratford, with the trains bound for Epping and Hainault via Newbury Park, though all the signs and platform describers are new - none of the decor from my East London days is left.
Walking along the road from Barkingside tube to the ground, I passed Seaward’s American sponsor Curtis, his wife Ginny and a young lady who I took to be their daughter. Spotting my London Seaward bobble hat and training top, Ginny said approvingly “Now that is a fantastic ensemble”. Arrived outside the ground and saw the turnstile lady and regular fan Dave through the gate. They said “Haven’t seen you for a while” and waved me in.
“Come up for the last game, have you?” the turnstile lady asked. Naturally I thought she was confirming the worst fears. But as Curtis came up and the lady talked to him and Dave, they talked about expecting to play in the Eastern Region League next season. Rumours of the club’s impending demise were greatly exaggerated after all. Curtis said the lady with him and his wife wasn’t their daughter - “she’s too good-looking for that” - but just a friend.
Alas, there was a gas problem at the bar so no draught drinks were on offer, and they were out of bottled cider. I talked to the turnstile lady who told me how the team’s poor results this season could be traced to last summer and the departure of manager Dan, who became manager of London Bees and took half the team there. This season they’d had a succession of managers with cobbled-together squads, though Emma, Sharne, Katherine and Elleah remain from last season.
To my deep sorrow, Jo had not only left the club last autumn but quit football altogether; the turnstile lady told me Jo had even left her job with the FA. We wondered if she’d been disheartened by the departure of Dan and the club’s rapid nosedive. I do miss Jo, she was always a good friend to me on matchdays - and her sex-bomb act at the 2023 FAWNL Dinner luring me back to being a Seaward regular is one of my most cherished moments in women’s football.
I looked up another of last season’s players who was warm and friendly to me, Rea Laudat, on Instagram and it turns out she’s now living in Newcastle. Messaged her to say hello.
Myself and a little group of Seaward faithful, including a friendly lady who was a friend of Sharne and sat in the row in front of me, constantly did our best to encourage the girls, and they never gave up - Jess in goal made some good saves, and Lily up front worked hard and was unlucky not to score - but Sudbury were a class above and ran out 9-0 winners.
Sudbury had their own commentator in the press box, presumably giving a live stream for their website; he and I exchanged friendly words at half-time and after the game. I got a hug and kiss from Sharne at half-time. Dave and I clapped the players off at the end and I said my goodbyes to everyone and ambled back to the tube.
The train home was jam packed. On a day when not only the London Marathon but a couple of major football matches (not including ours!) were on in town, what idiot came up with the bright idea of replacing our scheduled 10 carriage train with a 5 carriage one?? I was one of many standing in the carriage middle aisle from Waterloo to Woking. At Woking, when the man in the seat next to where I was standing left the train, I alerted the lady standing just forward of me. She was travelling home to the Isle of Wight after giving a yoga class in London, and made it clear that I’d earned her eternal gratitude by letting her sit instead of bagging the seat. I explained that it wasn’t my way to sit and leave a lady standing. I got the seat across the aisle at Farnborough, and the lady engaged me and the man next to her, who’d just run the marathon, in conversation on all sorts of topics for the whole journey. There was a lady marathoner who came and stood by us a bit later; she declined my offer of my seat, and the chatty lady talked to her as well for a while, noting that both the lady runner and the man next to her had athletes’ legs.
Walking along the road from Barkingside tube to the ground, I passed Seaward’s American sponsor Curtis, his wife Ginny and a young lady who I took to be their daughter. Spotting my London Seaward bobble hat and training top, Ginny said approvingly “Now that is a fantastic ensemble”. Arrived outside the ground and saw the turnstile lady and regular fan Dave through the gate. They said “Haven’t seen you for a while” and waved me in.
“Come up for the last game, have you?” the turnstile lady asked. Naturally I thought she was confirming the worst fears. But as Curtis came up and the lady talked to him and Dave, they talked about expecting to play in the Eastern Region League next season. Rumours of the club’s impending demise were greatly exaggerated after all. Curtis said the lady with him and his wife wasn’t their daughter - “she’s too good-looking for that” - but just a friend.
Alas, there was a gas problem at the bar so no draught drinks were on offer, and they were out of bottled cider. I talked to the turnstile lady who told me how the team’s poor results this season could be traced to last summer and the departure of manager Dan, who became manager of London Bees and took half the team there. This season they’d had a succession of managers with cobbled-together squads, though Emma, Sharne, Katherine and Elleah remain from last season.
To my deep sorrow, Jo had not only left the club last autumn but quit football altogether; the turnstile lady told me Jo had even left her job with the FA. We wondered if she’d been disheartened by the departure of Dan and the club’s rapid nosedive. I do miss Jo, she was always a good friend to me on matchdays - and her sex-bomb act at the 2023 FAWNL Dinner luring me back to being a Seaward regular is one of my most cherished moments in women’s football.
I looked up another of last season’s players who was warm and friendly to me, Rea Laudat, on Instagram and it turns out she’s now living in Newcastle. Messaged her to say hello.
Myself and a little group of Seaward faithful, including a friendly lady who was a friend of Sharne and sat in the row in front of me, constantly did our best to encourage the girls, and they never gave up - Jess in goal made some good saves, and Lily up front worked hard and was unlucky not to score - but Sudbury were a class above and ran out 9-0 winners.
Sudbury had their own commentator in the press box, presumably giving a live stream for their website; he and I exchanged friendly words at half-time and after the game. I got a hug and kiss from Sharne at half-time. Dave and I clapped the players off at the end and I said my goodbyes to everyone and ambled back to the tube.
The train home was jam packed. On a day when not only the London Marathon but a couple of major football matches (not including ours!) were on in town, what idiot came up with the bright idea of replacing our scheduled 10 carriage train with a 5 carriage one?? I was one of many standing in the carriage middle aisle from Waterloo to Woking. At Woking, when the man in the seat next to where I was standing left the train, I alerted the lady standing just forward of me. She was travelling home to the Isle of Wight after giving a yoga class in London, and made it clear that I’d earned her eternal gratitude by letting her sit instead of bagging the seat. I explained that it wasn’t my way to sit and leave a lady standing. I got the seat across the aisle at Farnborough, and the lady engaged me and the man next to her, who’d just run the marathon, in conversation on all sorts of topics for the whole journey. There was a lady marathoner who came and stood by us a bit later; she declined my offer of my seat, and the chatty lady talked to her as well for a while, noting that both the lady runner and the man next to her had athletes’ legs.
