  Ray Away Days in the FA Cup Dateline : Saturday 14th September 2002 Having missed the previous round's tie at Southall this was my first cup game of the season and as seems to be the way of things with Wroxham we were drawn away yet again. Still no matter, there's something about these trips that appeals with the opportunity to visit new grounds and meet different opposition. A quick check of the map tells us Wootton is near Bedford about 90 miles away so an 11 o'clock start would seem to allow us plenty of time. Arriving at the cattle market at 10:50 it was clear that most people also felt we had ample time as I was amongst the first there. As the players arrived in dribs and drabs, what a strange saying that is, it gave us an opportunity to spot the newcomers. An extraordinary combination of injuries, unavailability's and suspensions meant we were without seven of the squad who had beaten Gorleston the previous Tuesday, thus making ten first team squad players out of contention before arguably our most important game of the season so far. Still everyone seemed in a positive frame of mind, when one door closes another one opens and all that, and we were ready to leave at 11:10. "Right ho Jimmy" shouts Smithy, "let's go." However the coach decided to challenge that old saying of one door closing and all that by steadfastly refusing to close it's own door. While Jimmy began pressing every button at his disposal (quite how turning the radio on was supposed to help I don't know!), Geoffrey, the co-pilot, was lending his inconsiderable weight in an effort to manually force it shut. This he managed but as soon as he let go, the door flew open again. Up jumps Ovy. "Anyone got a penknife?" he shouts. "Steady on Ovy, it's not that serious is it?" "No I'll open the control box and have a look in there". With that, and after much fishing about amongst the passengers, Ovy suddenly found he had a variety of weapons at his disposal. It's a good job we weren't flying as most of us would have been arrested! Ovy began poking and prodding. "Right, try that", he said. Nothing. "Go outside and try the outside button" says Jimmy. Ovy didn't seem impressed with this "What if it shuts and I can't get back in?" "Let's worry about that when it happens", Jimmy answers. Still no joy so Jimmy decides to give Kenny a ring to see if he has any ideas. Kenny says he'll come and have a look. Meanwhile it seems you need to have the engine running to have any chance of closing the door so Jimmy decides to circle the car park in the hope that it will jog the door into action. Those of you who know that cattle market will be aware that every Saturday morning they hold a sizable car boot on the car park. Now to go round it once would have been embarrassing enough but we must have circled it six times. All the wheeling and dealing stopped as the car booters stood open mouthed no doubt wondering what the hell was going on. The laughter on the bus got so loud that even the card school poked their heads up to see what was happening. "How far have we got?" said one. "How far? We haven't even left the bloody car park!" came the answer. "What! I thought we'd been going for ages…" Kenny arrives with Neville. He bounds across the car park with the ever present dawgie cap bouncing up and down. Two question here…Does he wear it for bed? And where on earth can you still buy them? Kenny seems to know what the problem is straight away but he hasn't brought any tools with him to fix it permanently. "Right, just to be sure look in the boot to see what we can wedge it with." Out comes the substitute numbers boards case. It doesn't quite fit so without hesitation off comes one of Kenny's shoes and he forces it into the gap to complete the job. I'd have thought his cap might have been a better fit but there was no chance of that coming off. "There you go", says Kenny, "I'll see you out there" he shouts as he hops back to his van. With a final wave to the car booters we were finally on our way and heading for the A11 towards Cambridge. As we settled down to looking out of the window there seemed an unusual number of Lotus cars heading into Norfolk. Apparently there's some kind of rally this weekend - I wonder what they do there? Do they go round saying "Oh look, there's a black one" and "Quick look, there's two red one together over there." Still they probably think we are all a little strange as well. At one point with five elises in a row the road looked like a scalectrix track. They are so near the ground they could give a new meaning to the word undertaking when going past lorries. Good progress now and with Gwen providing perfect directions we arrived a Wootton after a 2 hour journey in good time, despite the delayed start, and just in time to dive into the fast food bar outside and there's a last minute boost to the takings. The chips were awarded 10 out of 10 by those who had them and it was time to go in. Please note the views expressed in 'From the terraces' are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Wroxham Football Club. |
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Thursday 9th September 2010
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