IT had been ten years or more since I had been to Wembley to watch a big match. It must have been the Manchester United- Newcastle Cup final.
So when the chance of a ticket to see the new Wembley came along it was too good to pass over, although I knew getting to North London in time for the 8 pm kick-off on a work day would be difficult.
The fact that England had the chance to qualify for next year's Europeans championships, following Israel's victory over Russia, provided an obvious added incentive.
My great Pal John Stamp managed to get the tickets and agreed to drive to London, via Southampton where I had a business appointment earlier in the day. We left Soton at 1.45pm, allowing plenty of time to get to Wembley, via my flat in Docklands where we planned to stay the night.
We stopped for a quick snack at Fleet Services and made good time to London. Then it all started to go pearshape. We got caught in a pig of a traffic jam caused by an accident on the Cromwell Road on our way into town. It was clear we were going nowhere for a couple of hours so we decided to find a different route through West London to get out to the East End.
We arrived at the flat at 6 pm and after a quick change caught a bus to Canary Wharf where we jumped on a Jubilee Line tube to Wembley Park, 17 stops away.
The tube was crowded to a dangerous level but there was some friendly banter going on. It was pouring with rain by the time we got to Wembley and we both bought an England hat to keep dry.
The new Wembley looked truly impressive and as we walked up Wembley Way a few choruses of "In-ger-land, In-gerr-land" broke out bringing back memories when we were younger men and went to a number of cup finals. I started to feel quite excited and even joined in a couple of chants.
We got into the stadium half an hour before kick-off but the queues at the refreshment counters were too long to get a hot drink and take our seats before kick-off.
Wembley looked every inch a stadium for the 21st century but the pitch was in a terrible state, waterlogged down the wings and obviously damaged by the recent NFL American football game.
The 90,000 crowd to a man stood in tribute as some of our Armed Forces just back from Iraq and Afghanistan paraded around the stadium.
What happened over the next 90 minutes was a strange combination of disappointment, elation and exasperation. We were amazed that Frank Lampard got the "man-of-the-match" award; I didn't realise he was on the pitch for the first 20 minutes. Peter Crouch was clearly our best player and the arrival of David Beckham as a substitute after half-time lifted the crowd and he teammates.
Why the heck Steve McClaren reverted to 4-4-2 after coming back from two-nil down to 2-2 will always be a mystery. Apparently, he ignored the advice of assistant coach Terry Venables to bring on Owen Hargreaves to shore up the midfield for the last 15 minutes and he looked a rather sad and pathetic figure sheltering on the touchline under an umbrella. Surely getting wet with your players is part of being the coach? I prefer managers to be in a tracksuit, urging their players on from the dugout or technical area, rather than the suited and booted brigade.
The players skulked off the pitch after the final whistle, apart from Beckham who acknowledged the crowd's applause, obviously aware that he was probably wearing an England shirt for the last time. Beckham deserves his 100th cap and I hope whoever is appointed as the new England coach will be man enough to grant that wish. After all, we're only going to be playing friendlies over the next few months. Beckham deserves it.
If the disappointment of not qualify was not enough, worse was to come.
We exited the new stadium, via the escalators, very quickly but were then subjected to 90 minutes in monsoon conditions in Wembley Way as tens of thousands edged their way to Wembley Park station. The police had no option but to manage the number of fans allowed onto the station at one time for fear of a potential tragedy
Only this country could spend £750 million on building a national stadium but not put in the infrastructure to match.
Watching our national game in a new national stadium stadium should be a pleasurable experience, whatever the weather.
It turned out to be a nightmare - without taking the pathetic performance by the England players into consideration.
As we stood in the driving rain, soaked to our socks, I looked at John and admitted: "I'm too old for this. Next time I'll watch it on the telly."
The journey back to Docklands was even more fraught as railway officials struggled to get the fans away from Wembley. We were planning to go for a drink but drenched to the skin and miserable as sin we decided to drive home, arriving back in Dorset at 4.30 am.
I am pleased I've seen the new Wenbley. But I have no intention of going again.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
All change at the Davey Fort
NOW that I have relinquished the chairmanship of Lyme Regis Football Club after ten years, I've got the chance to see a bit more sport rather than spending every spare moment at the Davey Fort.
Through my job as chief executive of View From Publishing Limited, which has very strong sporting links, I'm in the process of setting up partnership arrangements with Yeovil Town, Weymouth Town and Dorchester Town and will report on these when plans are finalised.
I'm retaining my link with the Seasiders by becoming the club's main sponsor and hope to be presenting a new kit to them soon. I've managed to keep away from the Davey Fort on Saturdays so as not to cramp the new committee's style, although I must admit I miss the matchday atmosphere greatly.
I've always said "Once a Seasider always a Seasider" and I don't get the same adrenalin rush watching other local teams.
I've been up to the Fort a couple of times to do a "SportsView" with Nomad for Lyme Regis Radio. They always get good hits and the players really respond to the interviews. "Well Pip, it was like this ...." They're all naturals. We hope to do many more of these throughout the season.
I'm delighted to see the Lyme first team back on top of the Perry Street Premier division and the Reserves and Bantams doing well in their respective divisions. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see a shelf full of trophies at the Davey Fort at the end of the season. I vowed that I would not be one of those ex-committee members who start running the club down as soon as I left. The club has enough of those already.
New chairman Lee Caddy, who was my assistant for several years, is doing a great job and it's really good to see a few youngsters on the committee. Well done to Luke Clifton who organised the new pitch perimeter signs. They make the Davey Fort look like a real football ground and have brought in much needed funds.
Someone told me that they thought the football club would be a shadow of its former self without Pip Evans. I never subscribed to that view. A club like Lyme Regis FC, formed in 1885, will always be bigger than any individual and that's how it should be.
The club will be different but that's no bad thing and the big mistake that Lee and I made in the latter years of our custodianship was to try and do everything ourselves. Lee now has much more support from the committee and players and that can only be a good thing for the long term future of one of the area's top sporting organisations.
I still plan to do my bit and I am currently involved in trying to secure grant aid to improve the changing facilities at the Davey Fort which are now well below standard.
We postponed spending any money on them when we were involved in the Strawberry Field project but the players deserve better facilities and we hope to be able top deliver these in the near future.
Whilst on the subject of the Strawberry Field, it would seem the project is well and truly dead. When the football club withdraw as the lead organisation Lyme Regis Town Council decided to continue working with the district council in the hope of getting at least one pitch at the Strawberry Field. But the town council's working party has not met for months and things have gone very quiet. District councillor Daryl Turner admitted recently that the project had fizzled out.
During the town forum session at a recent council meeting I asked for an update on the situation but the council have not had the courtesy to come back to us. The club deserves to be treated with more respect, especially as we paid for all the engineering reports and then gave them to the council for their own endevours.
In fact there is an agreement between the club and the council that the cost of the main engineering report (about £10,000) will be reimbursed to the club if the planning application was refused. Technically, planning permission has not been rejected as we withdrew it at the last minute after seeing the planning officer's comprehensive rejection of the scheme and the cost of continuing consultants' fees. WE never had any intention of giving the Uplyme mob their day in court.
I suppose that could be rectified if the club still went ahead with the original planning application in written form only and without employing any experts to present our case.
It would be ironic if the plans were approved in those circumstances. But that is not likely to happen.
The council can hardly say they can't afford refunding the £10,000 as they have just approved a £70,000 loan to the Lyme Regis Young People's Club and are considering giving another £120,000 to the Marine Theatre. These are both worthy projects but what about the sporting club that provides well organised activity for dozens of young people every week?
The handling of the Strawberry Field project by the district council is little short of a public scandal and one day I hope we can expose how appallingly the club was treated by the planning authority.
The young people of Lyme Regis should not be penalised by inadequate facilities just because - by an accident of birth - they were born in a beautiful area controlled by over-protective planning policies.
Well, that's got that off my chest. As chairman of the club I was never able to say it.
Through my job as chief executive of View From Publishing Limited, which has very strong sporting links, I'm in the process of setting up partnership arrangements with Yeovil Town, Weymouth Town and Dorchester Town and will report on these when plans are finalised.
I'm retaining my link with the Seasiders by becoming the club's main sponsor and hope to be presenting a new kit to them soon. I've managed to keep away from the Davey Fort on Saturdays so as not to cramp the new committee's style, although I must admit I miss the matchday atmosphere greatly.
I've always said "Once a Seasider always a Seasider" and I don't get the same adrenalin rush watching other local teams.
I've been up to the Fort a couple of times to do a "SportsView" with Nomad for Lyme Regis Radio. They always get good hits and the players really respond to the interviews. "Well Pip, it was like this ...." They're all naturals. We hope to do many more of these throughout the season.
I'm delighted to see the Lyme first team back on top of the Perry Street Premier division and the Reserves and Bantams doing well in their respective divisions. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see a shelf full of trophies at the Davey Fort at the end of the season. I vowed that I would not be one of those ex-committee members who start running the club down as soon as I left. The club has enough of those already.
New chairman Lee Caddy, who was my assistant for several years, is doing a great job and it's really good to see a few youngsters on the committee. Well done to Luke Clifton who organised the new pitch perimeter signs. They make the Davey Fort look like a real football ground and have brought in much needed funds.
Someone told me that they thought the football club would be a shadow of its former self without Pip Evans. I never subscribed to that view. A club like Lyme Regis FC, formed in 1885, will always be bigger than any individual and that's how it should be.
The club will be different but that's no bad thing and the big mistake that Lee and I made in the latter years of our custodianship was to try and do everything ourselves. Lee now has much more support from the committee and players and that can only be a good thing for the long term future of one of the area's top sporting organisations.
I still plan to do my bit and I am currently involved in trying to secure grant aid to improve the changing facilities at the Davey Fort which are now well below standard.
We postponed spending any money on them when we were involved in the Strawberry Field project but the players deserve better facilities and we hope to be able top deliver these in the near future.
Whilst on the subject of the Strawberry Field, it would seem the project is well and truly dead. When the football club withdraw as the lead organisation Lyme Regis Town Council decided to continue working with the district council in the hope of getting at least one pitch at the Strawberry Field. But the town council's working party has not met for months and things have gone very quiet. District councillor Daryl Turner admitted recently that the project had fizzled out.
During the town forum session at a recent council meeting I asked for an update on the situation but the council have not had the courtesy to come back to us. The club deserves to be treated with more respect, especially as we paid for all the engineering reports and then gave them to the council for their own endevours.
In fact there is an agreement between the club and the council that the cost of the main engineering report (about £10,000) will be reimbursed to the club if the planning application was refused. Technically, planning permission has not been rejected as we withdrew it at the last minute after seeing the planning officer's comprehensive rejection of the scheme and the cost of continuing consultants' fees. WE never had any intention of giving the Uplyme mob their day in court.
I suppose that could be rectified if the club still went ahead with the original planning application in written form only and without employing any experts to present our case.
It would be ironic if the plans were approved in those circumstances. But that is not likely to happen.
The council can hardly say they can't afford refunding the £10,000 as they have just approved a £70,000 loan to the Lyme Regis Young People's Club and are considering giving another £120,000 to the Marine Theatre. These are both worthy projects but what about the sporting club that provides well organised activity for dozens of young people every week?
The handling of the Strawberry Field project by the district council is little short of a public scandal and one day I hope we can expose how appallingly the club was treated by the planning authority.
The young people of Lyme Regis should not be penalised by inadequate facilities just because - by an accident of birth - they were born in a beautiful area controlled by over-protective planning policies.
Well, that's got that off my chest. As chairman of the club I was never able to say it.
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