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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