Blackout!


Last night saw Great Shelford visit Ely City for the preliminary round of the Cambridgshire Invitation Cup. It might not sound like a big match, especially as Great Shelford play in the Cambridgeshire Senior League, 2 steps below Ely (who are a step 5 team) and the same league as Ely City's reserve team, but the crowd was bigger than they usually get on Saturday, although there were no programmes available.

When I was leaving Cambridge the weather was pretty bad and it was raining. I feared for the worst and that the game would be played in a storm, but by kick off the evening had turned into a fairly pleasent autumn night. The pitch was obviously a bit skiddy and I thought we would probably be in for a lot of goals, especially as Ely had a fairly strong side out, despite top scorer Andy Petit being off the team sheet and it also looked as if Great Shelford might be amongst the goals, as Ely were having to play the 'A' Teams goalkeeper.

The first half was a fairly dull affair though and the highlight was getting to meet and have a chat with a guy who went around the country following Ely City, Port Vale, Colwyn Bay and Kings Lynn, although he lived in Essex. He also mentioned that he'd been to a couple of Accrington Stanley games lately. I'm hoping that next time I see him that he has added Blyth Spartans to his portfolio, just so he has a good geographical spread!

Luckily, a couple of changes were made at half time, and one of Ely's subs (who I don't know the name of) put Great shelford under pressure with some tough tackling and long throws that made Rory Delap's efforts look more like Walter the Softee of Beano fame. Ely took the lead on 55 minutes with a goal from Dean Blackman and should have been awarded another goal soon sfterwards when another long throw was put in by an Ely striker who was judged to have fouled him.

However, things were to take a twist and it wasn't due to a concerted effort by the Great Shelford team, who didn't seem able to get anywhere near the Ely goal, but through a power cut. On 88 minutes Ely or at least that half of Ely was plunged into darkness. The referee decided to wait 15 minutes to see what happened, but the only visible light was from the cathedral. So, that was it. The first time I had ever been to a match that was abandoned, but let's face it in Ukraine they would probably have found some miners' helmets and made the players play in those.

One thing is for sure the already badly lit walk to the ground was even more hair raising on the way back, and I was a bit disappointed to lose my new friend before I could get him a pint back.

So what's next? Well, I'm not sure. To be honest even though it was the last minute of the game and Great Shelford din't look like scoring it would seem fairer to have a replay, as a run in this cup could end in a fairly lucrative tie with Histon or one of the Cambridge teams. On the other hand it was the last minute and with the number of competitions both teams are involved in they might agree for the result to stand. I'm not actually clear about what will happen at the moment as the Cambridge Evening News says that there will be a meeting to decide if the result stands, as do the various websites. However, Asya seems to think that on Star Radio they said that Ely had been awarded the victory, we'll see.

i didn't take my camera to the game, but the picture shows the only available light last night, although obviously from closer up

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more