"I was there"

My old school friend Dai invited me to have a day out in Cardiff at the Wales v England rugby. Even my unconcious mind was in a state of excitement, hence waking at 6.15am. Played Welsh music videos for 2 hours on Youtube to get into the mood.

Bus full of Welshmen, with a few exceptions. Enjoyable journey spent with three generations of the Powell family and the sports pages of the morning papers. Wales needed to win to stop an English grand-slam and win by 7 points to take the championship themselves. Too close to call but Wales had been improving and England getting poorer as the season progressed. The papers asked "Would the young, inexperienced England team "choke"under the pressure in a packed stadium?" The roof was to be closed, we read, and the stadium turned into a pressure-cooker of noise and emotion. The anticipation was slowly being notched up and we were still five hours from kick-off.



 Dai's brother had arranged lunch at the "Potted Pig" and I had the uniquely Welsh laverbread, cockles and bacon for a starter. Well, you had to didn't you? We ate in tiled, subterreanean spleandour in what was an old bank vault newly converted into a restaurant.




 With kick-off time beckoning we spilled onto the rainswept streets and were dragged along past the castle and the Taff  by the magnetic pull of the stadium along with the thousands of others happy, laughing, nervously expectant fans.

A quick beer in the stadium and this was what we'd come for. First the anthems then the game. Wales the better team all round. Romped home 30-3. After a couple of beers in the roofed-out Traders Tavern we got  back on the bus to Cheltenham for a "prompt" 8.15pm departure (no way that was ever going to happen). Much sleeping and sporadic singing. Jill a treasure to come to pick us up.  A real "I was there" day.