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Da Da Da
Flew to Zürich on Friday for the Women’s Euros. Saw plenty of other England fans, and quite a few Wales fans, at the gate for my flight. Got talking to two girls in the queue, Leanne from Northampton and Grainne, who had an Irish accent. Both wore rock band T-shirts. They were going over for just England’s first game, against France, so sympathised with me about my limited annual leave restricting me to the three first phase games (they made a few jokes about me calling in sick from Switzerland and staying on). When we boarded they turned out to be sat across the aisle from me, in the very back row.
We said our goodbyes as we disembarked … then met again in the queue for passport control. I said to Grainne “If you’ve got an Irish one, you’re in luck” and nodded towards the quiet, smoothly moving EU-EEA passports queue. She didn’t get what I meant at first, then when she realised, she said she had a UK passport. Northern Irish? London Irish? I didn’t ask.
Googling for a way to get from the airport to my hotel, I found I needed a 72, but it wasn’t clear whether that was a bus or tram. A look at the bus station showed nothing numbered 72. I went back into the airport shopping centre and, again thanks to Google Mps, found my way to the street exit and onto the main road, where the stop for the 72, which turned out to be a bus, was.
Trouble was, I was standing on the wrong side of the road, and realised that after going one stop, thanks to the onboard screens counting down the stops. Got off at the second stop and crossed the road.
My hotel was a six minute walk from Zwinglihaus bus stop. I needed to walk down Kalkbreitestrasse. Except Kalkbreitestrasse is bisected by a main road and guess what? I set off in the wrong direction. Several minutes down the road the wrong way I checked my phone, confirming my suspicions, and U-turned.
Arrived at the hotel about 9.30. The young lady on reception was pleasant and friendly, but, after taking my 21 francs city tax, told me I had 757 francs to pay for the room. I replied that I’d already paid. She looked at her computer terminal and said something hadn’t come up on the system but she didn’t argue and handed me my key and explained about the lifts, the stairs and breakfast times.
Dumped my suitcase in the room and went to find a takeaway. On my way out, I showed the reception girl my email from Hotels.com confirming the payment but she said she knew. Food bought, finally relaxed watching the second half of Germany v Poland.
Joy, my room TV has BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Saturday lunchtime the Free Lionesses embassy had arranged a photoshoot for England fans in Bürkliplatz. As soon as I arrived I spotted Deb and Rachel. A quick catch-up chat with both of them then wandered around and found Leanne - on a crutch, bless her - and Lindsey. We had a big group photo done with an array of England flags, with the lake and mountains in the background, then moseyed along to the tram stop to get to the Kraftwerk bar, where a Lionesses HQ had been set up.
They’d done us proud. Outside and around the front entrance were big flags and signs reading ‘Lionesses HQ’ and photos of the England squad. In the main hall was a big screen showing loops of goals from the last two years of Lioness matches, with rows of long wooden tables and benches. A DJ, in between songs, held T-shirt competitions and talked to individual fans in the crowd. There was a back bar, and at tables in a section joining the front and back bars Deb, Rachel and another girl sat on ambassador duty.
There was also a beer garden, where a guy from Birmingham who knew me from past games said hello and I met a group from Derby complete with a Derby County WFC flag. There was only one beer on offer - Budweiser, which had been rebranded Lioness Lager for the occasion. At least everyone’s first one was free. Being boiling hot - it reached 30 around 4pm - the Fritz brand cola, diet cola, apple-elderberryade and rhubarbade were as popular as anything.
In the main room the DJ announced the England Band, who played Sweet Caroline for us all to sing along and held a competition for the best singer to win a limited edition England Band bucket hat. I was one of the few people there who were singing most of the words of the verses but wasn’t chosen for the final two. Naturally they picked two young women, and after one of them was declared winner (and hugged the other girl) both of them were given hats.
Passed by Rachel who was haring around saying she was looking for a ticket for the match for a ticketless fan. I was able to help, having the ticket that I’d got for my friend Sue who’s unwell and wasn’t able to come. Rachel introduced me to a young guy with a Portuguese or Brazilian name, I transferred him the ticket and he transferred the cash to my bank. I messaged Sue to let her know and asked her to let me know her details to send the money on, but she doesn’t seem to be picking up her messages at the moment. Hope she’s OK.
Former England goalkeeper Carly Telford, who I knew from Notts, paid us a visit. I got to have a chat with her, then she did a Q&A from the main stage. It was touching that she said the pivotal moment of her Lionesses journey was after my lovely Laura’s own goal lost us the semi-final of the Canadian World Cup against Japan, and her brother rang her from home and told her about the torrent of public support and sympathy for the team. For her, that made the redemption of beating Germany in the third place play-off all the more meaningful.
Several media people roamed the beer garden talking to fans. Maisie and her friends had arrived by then and I stumbled on a girl from the Daily Mirror talking to them. When she’d wrapped up with them I said hello to her and mentioned that that night’s game would be my 107th Lionesses match. She asked me a few questions about how I thought the team would do and about my support, and took my name, where I was from and my age. On the whole, though, I understand the journalists always talking to the fruity girls among the travelling England support rather than an out of shape 50-something guy.
I got the tram over to the stadium to arrive for 7pm, when I’d arranged to meet Seona, an English expat in Switzerland who’s been an e-pal of mine for 20 years but never yet met, and her husband. I was a bit early so got a gyros from a food van. Just after 7 Seona came up behind me. We hugged and kissed and she introduced her husband Pete.
Seona bought us all chips and drinks and we stood chatting. They told me about their adventures over the years following their local team FC Winterthur, and Seona said with pride that Winti’s Schützenweise Stadium is the only decent football stadium in the Canton of Zürich. She pointed out that the venue for the evening’s game, the Letzigrund, is an athletics track - something I’d forgotten since my last visit 3 years ago. We talked about the changing, never dull, fortunes of our English men’s teams over the last 30 years or so - Portsmouth in my case, Leeds United in Seona’s and Doncaster Rovers in Pete’s.
“So you’re in a mixed marriage?”
“We are. Thank goodness we both love Winti.”
They confessed that it was their first women’s match, Pete saying “That’s bad on my part, being from Doncaster, the home of the Belles”. Alas, we were sitting in separate sections so said fond farewells and parted to take our seats.
I was in a busy England section where we kept up the cheering and singing all game. During the pre-game intros Charlotte arrived, walking along the row in front of mine; I was just about able to hug and kiss her across the row of seats.
England started off well and our section erupted with joy when Alessia Russo found the net in the 16th minute, only for VAR to poop the party, disallowing the goal. From then on, alas, it was all France. Daphne Cascarino skipped past the England left side and found Marie-Antoinette Katoto who’d managed to get into the box unmarked and made no mistake.
Soon after, we were all baying for a foul on Russo by a French player, but the ref waved play on, then Sandy Baltimore got behind Lucy Bronze who’d gone too far forward. Although Lucy tracked back, her attempt at intercepting only passed straight to Baltimore who drilled in France’s second.
England had no answer until late in the game. By then left-back Jess Carter, who’d been leaden-footed all evening, had been replaced by Niamh Charles. An improvement, but what we wanted to see was Alex Greenwood at left-back with Maya Le Tissier in the centre. The introduction of Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang sparked the Lionesses into showing some signs of life, and they laid siege to the French goal for the closing minutes but Keira Walsh’s magnificent lofted shot from a cleared corner was too little too late.
So we have to beat the Dutch on Wednesday. But will Sarina ring the desperately needed changes?
I headed straight out of the stadium at the final whistle - it was 11 pm and my hotel was a tram ride away. Happily the first two trams, not going my way, took most of the masses on the platform.
Sunday I made the three hour train journey to the little village of Alle right on the other side of Switzerland, to see Kathy Leander. Alle station was on a branch line from the neighbouring town of Porrentruy. With a half-hour wait at Porrentruy station I hit the café there, really to use the Gents but it was only polite to buy a drink as well. The lady serving and some of the customers noticed my England hat and accent and seemed most amused by, for them, a curiosity, an Englishman who’d come to Switzerland for the women’s European football. One guy said he knew Portsmouth as he used to be a coach driver in England.
Kathy was waiting on the platform at Alle station. We hugged and kissed, she saying she was so happy to see me. We walked to her apartment and had lunch she’d prepared, an olive oil salad followed by entrecôte, with mousse and lime sorbet for dessert. Kathy, bless her, seemed unsure of her cooking. I assured her it was very tasty.
We chatted about each other’s news. Kathy said her invitation to this year’s Eurovision in Basle had only come on the Monday evening, with the shows she was invited to being the Tuesday semi-final and the Saturday rehearsal. She said the Saturday show had been pretty scary with pro-Palestine protestors there and armed police surrounding the venue.
We went for a walk round the village. Kathy showed me the church, the house where she was born, places she used to play as a girl, a peaceful bridge over the river, and where a factory that employed much of the village used to be. She told me with pride that Louis Chevrolet, creator of the car, was from Alle. Walking around, we met a few locals - they all knew Kathy and she proudly introduced me to them as “my fan from England”.
Back at the apartment Kathy made me a gift of a big bag of Lindt Lindor chocs, and showed me her scrapbook of her music career. She was clearly touched when she reached all the messages she’d received from her colleagues at Merrill Lynch, where she was working in 1996, wishing her good luck at Eurovision. These days she sings at the Alle village fête every year; she’s rehearsing her song repertoire for this year’s event, in late August. She walked down to the station with me, we said fond goodbyes and we waved to each other through the window as the train pulled out.
On the train from Porrentruy to Biel-Bienne there were a few uniformed soldiers. The train from Biel-Bienne to Zürich had a lot more. The Swiss army, of course, comprises every Swiss man aged 20 to 40. They go about their day jobs, while their uniforms and armaments are kept at home, and they periodically go for rifle practice. Clearly they also go on camps sometimes, and this cohort were now returning home from one. There were some women among them; I guess they now allow women volunteers to augment the conscript ranks.
As I hadn’t had time to pick up tournament programmes for myself and a couple of friends on Saturday, I went over to the Zürich Fan Village in the pouring rain yesterday, but most of the stalls were shuttered and the lady at the information desk told me the souvenirs are only on sale at the actual matches. Trudged back to the main station, found a Swiss themed gift shop and got a postcard to send to Ann.
We said our goodbyes as we disembarked … then met again in the queue for passport control. I said to Grainne “If you’ve got an Irish one, you’re in luck” and nodded towards the quiet, smoothly moving EU-EEA passports queue. She didn’t get what I meant at first, then when she realised, she said she had a UK passport. Northern Irish? London Irish? I didn’t ask.
Googling for a way to get from the airport to my hotel, I found I needed a 72, but it wasn’t clear whether that was a bus or tram. A look at the bus station showed nothing numbered 72. I went back into the airport shopping centre and, again thanks to Google Mps, found my way to the street exit and onto the main road, where the stop for the 72, which turned out to be a bus, was.
Trouble was, I was standing on the wrong side of the road, and realised that after going one stop, thanks to the onboard screens counting down the stops. Got off at the second stop and crossed the road.
My hotel was a six minute walk from Zwinglihaus bus stop. I needed to walk down Kalkbreitestrasse. Except Kalkbreitestrasse is bisected by a main road and guess what? I set off in the wrong direction. Several minutes down the road the wrong way I checked my phone, confirming my suspicions, and U-turned.
Arrived at the hotel about 9.30. The young lady on reception was pleasant and friendly, but, after taking my 21 francs city tax, told me I had 757 francs to pay for the room. I replied that I’d already paid. She looked at her computer terminal and said something hadn’t come up on the system but she didn’t argue and handed me my key and explained about the lifts, the stairs and breakfast times.
Dumped my suitcase in the room and went to find a takeaway. On my way out, I showed the reception girl my email from Hotels.com confirming the payment but she said she knew. Food bought, finally relaxed watching the second half of Germany v Poland.
Joy, my room TV has BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Saturday lunchtime the Free Lionesses embassy had arranged a photoshoot for England fans in Bürkliplatz. As soon as I arrived I spotted Deb and Rachel. A quick catch-up chat with both of them then wandered around and found Leanne - on a crutch, bless her - and Lindsey. We had a big group photo done with an array of England flags, with the lake and mountains in the background, then moseyed along to the tram stop to get to the Kraftwerk bar, where a Lionesses HQ had been set up.
They’d done us proud. Outside and around the front entrance were big flags and signs reading ‘Lionesses HQ’ and photos of the England squad. In the main hall was a big screen showing loops of goals from the last two years of Lioness matches, with rows of long wooden tables and benches. A DJ, in between songs, held T-shirt competitions and talked to individual fans in the crowd. There was a back bar, and at tables in a section joining the front and back bars Deb, Rachel and another girl sat on ambassador duty.
There was also a beer garden, where a guy from Birmingham who knew me from past games said hello and I met a group from Derby complete with a Derby County WFC flag. There was only one beer on offer - Budweiser, which had been rebranded Lioness Lager for the occasion. At least everyone’s first one was free. Being boiling hot - it reached 30 around 4pm - the Fritz brand cola, diet cola, apple-elderberryade and rhubarbade were as popular as anything.
In the main room the DJ announced the England Band, who played Sweet Caroline for us all to sing along and held a competition for the best singer to win a limited edition England Band bucket hat. I was one of the few people there who were singing most of the words of the verses but wasn’t chosen for the final two. Naturally they picked two young women, and after one of them was declared winner (and hugged the other girl) both of them were given hats.
Passed by Rachel who was haring around saying she was looking for a ticket for the match for a ticketless fan. I was able to help, having the ticket that I’d got for my friend Sue who’s unwell and wasn’t able to come. Rachel introduced me to a young guy with a Portuguese or Brazilian name, I transferred him the ticket and he transferred the cash to my bank. I messaged Sue to let her know and asked her to let me know her details to send the money on, but she doesn’t seem to be picking up her messages at the moment. Hope she’s OK.
Former England goalkeeper Carly Telford, who I knew from Notts, paid us a visit. I got to have a chat with her, then she did a Q&A from the main stage. It was touching that she said the pivotal moment of her Lionesses journey was after my lovely Laura’s own goal lost us the semi-final of the Canadian World Cup against Japan, and her brother rang her from home and told her about the torrent of public support and sympathy for the team. For her, that made the redemption of beating Germany in the third place play-off all the more meaningful.
Several media people roamed the beer garden talking to fans. Maisie and her friends had arrived by then and I stumbled on a girl from the Daily Mirror talking to them. When she’d wrapped up with them I said hello to her and mentioned that that night’s game would be my 107th Lionesses match. She asked me a few questions about how I thought the team would do and about my support, and took my name, where I was from and my age. On the whole, though, I understand the journalists always talking to the fruity girls among the travelling England support rather than an out of shape 50-something guy.
I got the tram over to the stadium to arrive for 7pm, when I’d arranged to meet Seona, an English expat in Switzerland who’s been an e-pal of mine for 20 years but never yet met, and her husband. I was a bit early so got a gyros from a food van. Just after 7 Seona came up behind me. We hugged and kissed and she introduced her husband Pete.
Seona bought us all chips and drinks and we stood chatting. They told me about their adventures over the years following their local team FC Winterthur, and Seona said with pride that Winti’s Schützenweise Stadium is the only decent football stadium in the Canton of Zürich. She pointed out that the venue for the evening’s game, the Letzigrund, is an athletics track - something I’d forgotten since my last visit 3 years ago. We talked about the changing, never dull, fortunes of our English men’s teams over the last 30 years or so - Portsmouth in my case, Leeds United in Seona’s and Doncaster Rovers in Pete’s.
“So you’re in a mixed marriage?”
“We are. Thank goodness we both love Winti.”
They confessed that it was their first women’s match, Pete saying “That’s bad on my part, being from Doncaster, the home of the Belles”. Alas, we were sitting in separate sections so said fond farewells and parted to take our seats.
I was in a busy England section where we kept up the cheering and singing all game. During the pre-game intros Charlotte arrived, walking along the row in front of mine; I was just about able to hug and kiss her across the row of seats.
England started off well and our section erupted with joy when Alessia Russo found the net in the 16th minute, only for VAR to poop the party, disallowing the goal. From then on, alas, it was all France. Daphne Cascarino skipped past the England left side and found Marie-Antoinette Katoto who’d managed to get into the box unmarked and made no mistake.
Soon after, we were all baying for a foul on Russo by a French player, but the ref waved play on, then Sandy Baltimore got behind Lucy Bronze who’d gone too far forward. Although Lucy tracked back, her attempt at intercepting only passed straight to Baltimore who drilled in France’s second.
England had no answer until late in the game. By then left-back Jess Carter, who’d been leaden-footed all evening, had been replaced by Niamh Charles. An improvement, but what we wanted to see was Alex Greenwood at left-back with Maya Le Tissier in the centre. The introduction of Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang sparked the Lionesses into showing some signs of life, and they laid siege to the French goal for the closing minutes but Keira Walsh’s magnificent lofted shot from a cleared corner was too little too late.
So we have to beat the Dutch on Wednesday. But will Sarina ring the desperately needed changes?
I headed straight out of the stadium at the final whistle - it was 11 pm and my hotel was a tram ride away. Happily the first two trams, not going my way, took most of the masses on the platform.
Sunday I made the three hour train journey to the little village of Alle right on the other side of Switzerland, to see Kathy Leander. Alle station was on a branch line from the neighbouring town of Porrentruy. With a half-hour wait at Porrentruy station I hit the café there, really to use the Gents but it was only polite to buy a drink as well. The lady serving and some of the customers noticed my England hat and accent and seemed most amused by, for them, a curiosity, an Englishman who’d come to Switzerland for the women’s European football. One guy said he knew Portsmouth as he used to be a coach driver in England.
Kathy was waiting on the platform at Alle station. We hugged and kissed, she saying she was so happy to see me. We walked to her apartment and had lunch she’d prepared, an olive oil salad followed by entrecôte, with mousse and lime sorbet for dessert. Kathy, bless her, seemed unsure of her cooking. I assured her it was very tasty.
We chatted about each other’s news. Kathy said her invitation to this year’s Eurovision in Basle had only come on the Monday evening, with the shows she was invited to being the Tuesday semi-final and the Saturday rehearsal. She said the Saturday show had been pretty scary with pro-Palestine protestors there and armed police surrounding the venue.
We went for a walk round the village. Kathy showed me the church, the house where she was born, places she used to play as a girl, a peaceful bridge over the river, and where a factory that employed much of the village used to be. She told me with pride that Louis Chevrolet, creator of the car, was from Alle. Walking around, we met a few locals - they all knew Kathy and she proudly introduced me to them as “my fan from England”.
Back at the apartment Kathy made me a gift of a big bag of Lindt Lindor chocs, and showed me her scrapbook of her music career. She was clearly touched when she reached all the messages she’d received from her colleagues at Merrill Lynch, where she was working in 1996, wishing her good luck at Eurovision. These days she sings at the Alle village fête every year; she’s rehearsing her song repertoire for this year’s event, in late August. She walked down to the station with me, we said fond goodbyes and we waved to each other through the window as the train pulled out.
On the train from Porrentruy to Biel-Bienne there were a few uniformed soldiers. The train from Biel-Bienne to Zürich had a lot more. The Swiss army, of course, comprises every Swiss man aged 20 to 40. They go about their day jobs, while their uniforms and armaments are kept at home, and they periodically go for rifle practice. Clearly they also go on camps sometimes, and this cohort were now returning home from one. There were some women among them; I guess they now allow women volunteers to augment the conscript ranks.
As I hadn’t had time to pick up tournament programmes for myself and a couple of friends on Saturday, I went over to the Zürich Fan Village in the pouring rain yesterday, but most of the stalls were shuttered and the lady at the information desk told me the souvenirs are only on sale at the actual matches. Trudged back to the main station, found a Swiss themed gift shop and got a postcard to send to Ann.