A Season With Sharona ITFC 2011-12: Sheepish Decisions In Wales. Cardiff 2-2 ITFC 15 10 2011

“The Great Escape” alarm tone woke us up at silly o'clock and we hit the road at 5.30am for our trip to South Wales. We made a detour to Worcester to pick up Max and Caitlin and to drop off the Banoffee pie and apple & cinnamon cake that mummy had made him. We stopped outside Cardiff for a coffee and breakfast before heading to Barry, we arrived there just as Wales were exiting the rugby world cup at the hands of France, Allez les bleu!

The purpose of the visit was a sight seeing tour of Gavin and Stacey (the BBC comedy series) locations! The sat nav was programmed for 47 Trinity Street (Stacey’s house) and when we arrived there Sharon and Max got all woosie about getting out of the car and having a nose, “Just drive past.” So it was left to me and Caitlin to do a recce before they braved the outdoors! After hanging around outside taking photos we got invited in to “Stacey’s house” by Glenda Kenyon the owner, she just opened the front door and said “Do you want to come in and look around.” Once inside she started to tell us stories of how the house was transformed in her absence and apologised for the fact that the original white suites used in the series had been worn out by the many visitors who had sat on them! Everywhere we looked we saw memento’s of the programme, there was even an episode playing on the DVD. Glenda was interrupted by somebody at the front door (we were able to see the caller on a screen set in the telephone, it turned out to be a man calling about new carpets and we all just stood and listened and watched, I swear we had been transported to the twilight zone! Glenda was a brilliant host, she invited us to have look upstairs in the bedrooms, (we declined feeling it was a little too intrusive, but we did go outside and have a look at the patio instead via the kitchen and omelet pan)!

Next it was down to Barry Island where many of the outside scenes were shot, The beach, Prom, “Island leisure” (where Nessa worked), “Marco’s cafe” (Stacey worked here) everywhere had a “Gavin & Stacey” theme even “Boofys - The Codfather of Sole” was Gavin & Stacey’s favourite chippy! There is a whole industry been born out of the series, you can do a tour of all the locations in “Dave’s Coaches” and if you buy a souvenir at Island leisure you can sit in Nessa’s booth for a photo, (something that me, Max and Caitlin did). As we left Barry Island and headed for Cardiff I couldn’t resist playing “Islands In The Stream” on the iPod to make our excursion complete. I have to say that if I didn’t understand the definition of surreal beforehand, the Barry Island experience left me in no doubt of it afterwards!

It was 1pm when we parked up at the “Cardiff City Stadium” plenty of time for a bite to eat and a look around, Max noticed a Ladbrokes betting shop and was keen to do a couple of accumulators. I expected the locals to be more hostile towards us but they were all very friendly, (apart from the taxi driver in Barry Island who noticed Max’s Ipswich shirt and pipped his horn, mumbled something, probably in welsh and gave him a wanker sign out of his window with his hand hanging down towards the ground which I found very amusing).

The ground is a typical new build bowl and very spacious with the 26,700 seats all on one tier. It is my 50th football ground visited (I only know because I recently found an app on Facebook where you can map grounds visited anywhere in the world and I’m sad enough to do it)!

On to the game, It was Cardiff who took the lead against the run of play in the 19th minute, 6’ 4" Rudy Gestede leaping highest to nod Aron Gunnarsson’s throw-in past David Stockdale. Former Swansea man Jason Scotland who was getting loads of flack silenced the bluebirds fans with a crackin’ 25 yarder to level the scores. The match remained level and at half-time and I was on for my bet (last goal scorer and correct score 30/1). However former bluebird Michael Chopra on his first visit back to South Wales gave us the lead, heading in from close range in the 51st minute. David Marshall’s lush one on one save with an outstretched foot from Scotland’s curling shot prevented a certain away victory (he had his chance!) 4 minutes later Referee Dean Whitestone under pressure from the home fans following earlier questionable decisions went over to ask his linesman what was occurring after Carlos Edwards was alleged to have handled the ball, he then awarded a contentious penalty to Cardiff giving them a get out of jail card, (Edwards himself had escaped a prison sentence earlier in the week for driving offenses). Peter Whittingham smashed the spot kick into the Ipswich net, which livened up the home fans. Both teams had chances to win the match but in the end had to settle for a draw.It was as good a game as I’ve seen all season, oh and I would have been happy with that result before the kick-off.

After the game Max checked his accumulators and had six correct score-casts, he was guaranteed £16.12 as he had done a safety bet. He needed Brighton to draw with Hull for a full house and so spent much of the journey back to Worcester checking updates on his phone (especially the last 5 minutes). Just as we turned off the M5 the ref blew the whistle on a goaless draw at the Amex making Max £230.93 richer from a £1 bet, something that he’ll dine out on for years! The first port of call in Worcester was Ladbrokes, he was very keen to pick up his bounty.

His score-casts were:

Man City v Aston Villa - Home win

Norwich v Swansea - Home win

Stoke v Fulham - Home win

Wigan v Bolton - Away win

Brighton v Hull - Draw

Middlesbrough v Millwall - Draw

Watford v Crystal Palace - Away win

We stayed in Worcester Saturday night and went out with Max and a few of his friends to their local, “The Brewers Arms,” had a couple of pints and then got a taxi into town for an Indian at “The Massalla Lounge" which was excellent. It must have been after midnight when we got back to "The Fownes Hotel” (formerly a Victorian glove factory) for some much needed sleep, ending a long but most enjoyable day.