Match report from the inaugural SA Bluebirds club.
Matt Pontin/Neil Martin.
Durban & Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa.
Dec 20th Cardiff City versus Millwall
What a day to remember. I awoke full of anticipation for the first ever SA Blues get together. Following a mid-week meeting with co-founder Neil Martin we had arranged to meet at the venue selected (superbly) by Neil – Balito on the Northern coast just 30 mins outside of Durban.
The sun was baking hot as I assembled my Bluebirds flag on the parcel shelf of the car. A 30 min trip and a few sms’s later I pulled into Balito.
Neil had chosen the Ski Boat club which was literally on the beach. As I pulled up to park the car I was greeted by signs of City tops both Blue home and Black away and the flag of St David being hoisted in the air. Upon closer inspection 2 of the home tops were still sporting last seasons Leekes sponsors – but who cared – these were all Blues who had assembled together to watch the greatest team on earth together for the first OFFICIAL time in South Africa.
The beers were cracked open and we stood on the deck looking out to the Indian Ocean. As if by sheer magic – a school of dolphins appeared and began jumping in and out of the water (I swear one of them was doing the Ayatollah with his fins!). Then to follow one of those old fashioned single engine propeller planes flew past – with Neil claiming it was going to pull a Good luck City banner – which it did not.
We had chosen to get together for midday (2 hours ahead of CMT – Cardiff Mean Time) so that we could have a few pints before hand. The Bar B Q or Braai as they call it in SA was lit and soon the smell of Pork ribs and sausages infiltrated the air like a Clarks pie wafting down Sloper road.
By the time City had kicked off I for one was well on the way and I will leave the disappointing 90 minutes that followed to be erased from memory. Still that didn’t dampen hearts – we stayed and drank for a good few hours in the sunshine – sang various City songs/Welsh songs and enjoyed the look of astonishment from the locals as they tried to understand where this little invasion of Welshmen had come from – and more so why they kept singing about “Magic Hats” and something about the other side of the bridge?
Roll on the next live Sky game (as we get them here is SA) and long live the SA Bluebirds.
Pont
SA Blues – contact
Neil Martin – neilm@emeraldcasino.co.za
Matt Pontin – dynamicgroup@saol.com
|
