Friday, August 3, 2012


Sunday 29 th July Wembley Olympic football
Overcast day spent quietly at home watching the women’s cycling road race which had torrential rain at times out in Surry Countryside then at about 3.30 pm set off to Wembley Stadium which was just 5 stops north of West Hampstead. Initially a bit disconcerting to see the whole roadway from station to the stadium, about maybe 800 metres, packed wall to wall with people.


However the whole mass of people just kept moving quietly down the road, through interestingly high  narrow turnstiles (too narrow to have big bag with you) which had inbuilt ticket scanner, then pat down search and bag search once inside, and sitting in our seats 26 rows up the top tier by 4.35 pm before the first game at 5pm. Being experienced stadium attenders on rainy days  at Mt Smart we took plastic rubbish bags to wrap around legs and a small towel to wipe wet seats. Ha Ha ! You don’t need such stuff at Wembley cos maybe 75 % of the 90,000  seats are undercover and we didn’t get even slightly damp  tho it did rain on the pitch a few times during the game.

Sat next to a nice English couple there with their 5 month old baby Grace. Watched 2 games, the first Senegal vs Columbia which was a bit bad tempered game, lots of yellow cards and one red card plus crowd kept booing a player from Columbia, who plays in English premier league, and had allegations of racial abuse against him there.

2nd game was between Great Britain and United Arab Emirates, finally won by GB after UAE had held them to 1 all until about 15 min from end. Because this was GB game the whole stadium was full and in very loud voice but cheerful.

Interesting observation was that in contrast to NZ grounds no alcohol was allowed inside the seating area so people couldn’t just sit for hours and drink and I didn’t see one drunk at the game.

Also no upright barriers in front of crowd in front row but sort of railing affair that projected forward that would make it difficult to climb on to field but not trap people.

Interesting also observing the security guards at work and noticed as we left stadium that they get to searched  when they check in for work.

Leaving the stadium took 40 min, about twice as long to get out as to get in, interesting experience to be in that sized crowd moving slowly towards tube station and also to experience the 3 or 4 lines of mounted police, about 4 abreast across the road which form quite a slowing down barrier as you have to walk between them, again as seen earlier at events in London most of the police officers on these huge  horses are women.

Trains were coming every 1 to 2 minutes, then 5 minutes for us south  on tube and 10 min walk home. Great evening out. Even the fish and chips at the stadium were freshly cooked and delicious but they did seem to run out of food at the end.  

     


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