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Published: October 24th 2017
I have just received a belated present. Saturday. 3 pm. The latest excellent publication by one Daniel Gray. I note with interest that his biography on his website boasts marking Gordon Strachan's son out of a game. What would my footballing pinnacle be? Evening Gazette ......when Evening still applied .....Schools Penalty Prize. I still wonder how that penalty missed the crossbar and hit Row 25 of the East Stand seats. 22,046 witnessed my embarrassment. I still sent the keeper the wrong way though! There is still some satisfaction in failure. "Big" John Hickton showed everyone how to do it in the "real" event immediately afterwards. In a world where football is now very much at the whims of the TV schedules or perhaps even personal decision of some uninvolved broadcasting executive, Daniel sets out a series of short stories that warm the hearts of us old folk. The old folk that remember when we looked forwarded to 3 pm on a Saturday - the traditional kick off time - as a time when reality could take care of its own self .... at least for a couple of hours! If we weren't fortunate to be able to go to a game
- the norm - we would have to make do with the results in the Sports Gazette. It was pink. I know people who actually went to the match because their parents could make it come true and they queued up outside the "top shop" to get the Sports Gazette. Perhaps they had seen the Ayresome Park boys win and they didn't really believe it? These days the youngsters would associate 4 pm on a Sunday as the norm. The time that Sky TV have decided it was a bright idea to make a sizeable number of people decamp from Newcastle to Swansea or the like. Obvious really - loads of money in the northern powerhouse. You are probably wondering what has any of that got to do with a bright autumn morning in the Pardubice region of the Czech Republic. The first chapter of the above book talks of train trips and the ways of passing the journey. Endless chatter on mobile phones. Peter "touching base" with the office. Giles confirming the meeting the following day. Fingers tap at laptops. Checking emails. Sending emails. Writing reports. Myself, like the author, specialise in spotting football grounds. A skill that can
take years to fine tune. "Where are we now?" the Other Half will enquire heading north from Saint Pancras. The landmark floodlights allow a confrmed geographical location - Kettering - with a simple nonchelant glance out of the window. The train line from Prague to Ostrava passes within a whisker of the Stadium Pod Vinici, but the passenger on the train here would struggle with an identify based on floodlights. Quite simply, there are none.
We had a belated breakfast, given the commute to find our entertainment was but a 20 minute walk. The autumn colours were looking splendid in the sunshine. Who needs to go to New England? The full array of leaves painted a perfect picture. I led the route along the river towards the train crossing. There were few folk about, save for a couple of dog walkers and the odd passing cyclist. The dog walkers were well served. We noted a pristine dog bin complete with a supply of paper bags, should your four legged friend decide to leave a deposit on the footway. There was some doubt on the final few yards. In the absence of the floodlights to follow, technology was
employed to save the step counter having to work overtime. We arrived with plenty of time to kick off. Whilst I became all nostalgic for Saturday 3 pm earlier, the "traditional" time in this part of the Czech Republic was a bright and early 1015 am! Of course in a simple world of regional football and only the occasional travelling supporter, this is no great hardship. However, the locals at FK Pardubice have had a meteoric rise and now ply their trade in the FN Liga - the 2nd tier of Czech football. The visitors today were the splendidly entitled FC Sellier & Bellot Vlasim, who had come a mere 90 kilometres. It had still proved a challenge for their followers, as a mere 10 had made it to watch their team. I am not sure how some other teams in the division feel about it, but I can't see such as Opava or Trinec being that thrilled with the combination of 1015 am and a journey in excess of 250 kilometres. FK Parudbice would get a taste of their own medicine next week with a journey to Trinec for a 1015 am kick off.
The ticket
office was small whitewashed building with a window opening on to the street. There were 3 people before us in the queue. A simple system of 2 prices was employed. 80 Crowns for the best seats in Block A and 50 Crowns for everyone else. We opted to join the select hordes in Block A in the main stand. The majority went for the cheaper option, which meant that they could invest the extra coins in a beer to help the concentration. Drinking is almost a national sport in the Czech Republic. It is certainly up there with ice hockey and definitely ahead of football. Indeed, should they ban drinking at matches it is questionable how long football could survive. The crowd for this 2nd Division match was a mere 718 ......yes 718! In comparison, Dynamo Pardubice in the ice hockey drew over 7,000 the previous evening. It wasn't long before the majority were sampling their first beer of the morning. It also wasn't long before most were sampling their second beer either. In fairness, the football was dull and pedestrian. The home team dominated, but had to wait for a class goalkeeping error from the visitors before finally establishing
this on the scoreline. The most exciting thing about the visitors was probably their name. I googled Sellier & Bellot to find that they are a firearms and ammunition manufacturer based in Vlasim. English football is now dominated with sponsorship from far eastern betting companies, due to the obsession with our game from the Asian market. I sit and wonder what the target market is for Czech football. First up we have Zbrojovka Brno with a pedigree in weapons and now Sellier & Bellot! The bar was doing a substantially better trade than the "club shop". It transpired to be a table with random and sparse selection of items. Alas a key ring would be the closest they could get to a pin badge, so we would be unable to sport a white horse on our chests for the remainder of the day. The sun was beating down directly in our faces, so we relocated to the narrow three row stand of seats on the far side for the second half to ensure no burning. The locals let off a smoke grenade and a couple of firecrackers at the end of the game as the home team celebrated their climb
in the direction of the summit of the league. Who knows on this form, big city Slavia and Sparta could be coming to see them next year. A set of floodlights to spot from the train will surely be essential then!!
At the conclusion of the match, the staff of the stadium restaurant Pod Vinici waited for the onslaught of additional customers. We wandered off back in the direction of the railway station. A tiny church caught our attention, although the Chapel of Svate Anny seemed somewhat misplaced hemmed in by the railway line and adjacent underpass. It was now just after 1230 pm, but the residents of Pardubice had already retreated into their weekend hibernation. Those shops who open for a brief spell on Saturday mornings had closed and many of the bars were not yet open. The combination of events plays into the hand of the local football club, where at least you can get p***ed and get something to eat if that it is your thing on a weekend. We passed few others on our stroll and the only businesses still active were the Asian owned corner shops. A group of locals whose lives
were at the crossroads had been shopping. They sat on a bench and indulged in the equivalent of white lightening. The walk to the station hadn't taken as long as expected, so we whiled away in the cafe outside having purchased our tickets for an afternoon in Chrudim. The locals dropped the C and pronounced in Hrudim. It was a tiny train for the short journey and it was standing room only for the late arrivals. It seemed that the residents of Chrudim had been into town to take advantage of the limited shopping hours. We initially headed north towards one of the suburbs stations in Pardubice. The driver then got out of his cab and walked to the other end to drive back in the right direction. A group of rail enthusiasts were pouring over an old carriage and steam engine at the little museum nearby. The scenery was flat and agricultural until a large steel plant on the outskirts of town. We arrived at the sleepy main station and the majority of the passengers headed off into the afternoon sun. We could see the large church on the hill in the distance, so set off in the gneral
direction.
Chrudim is only a small town of about 25,000 inhabitants and now dominated by the regional capital of Pardubice. It wasn't always so. As with Hardec Kralove, it originally found prminence as one of the royal dowry towns in the 13th century. Up to 1918, the town was aprt of Austria and during the mid 1700s under the reign of Maria Thersa, it was the dominant regional centre. Today on a sunny, sleepy afternoon, nothing could be further from the imagination. The two visual landmarks were the church previously mentioned and a large white house climbing high on the edge of the old town. This was the National Museum of Puppets. The house itself is a visual masterpiece and dates from 1573. It was built as the home of a rich merchant, who indulged himself with a tower and balconies on the outer side, which gaze over the surrounding countryside. We walked up through the twisting narrow streets to the top of town looking all the time for somewhere to take a drink and some food. The Other Half was carefully monitoring every step on her device, so the odd pit stop was essential. The total
on this day amounted to 10.6 miles, so I am informed after the event - a total that paled into insignificance after the 13 miles the previous day. Pardubice had been quiet, but this was almost devoid of life. A cake shop was open, but not what was required. We eventually found an open resturant - not with the outside seating to take advantage of the weather - but beggars can't be choosers. The Restaurant Ruzek was a fine choice. The ribs were a serious plate full.
We wandered back down through the main square. A central fountain is commonplace in most Bohemian towns. The square centrepiece was the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As with most other churches we found, it was locked. It certainly was a picturesque place full of monuments and great architecture earning it the title of the "Athens of Bohemia". We caught the train back to Pardubice.
Appendix 1 Fortuna Narodni Liga (2nd Division) FK Pardubice 2 FC Sellier & Bellot Vlasim 0 Date : Saturday 14 October 2017 @ 1015 Hours
Venue : Stadium Pod Vicini, Pardubice
Attendance : 718
plus 4 Dogs
Scorers : 1-0 Petran (FK Pardubice), 2-0 Ladra (FK Pardubice)
FK Pardubice : Knobloch – Křapka, Piroch, Šejvl, Surzyn – Ladra, Jeřábek, Řezníček, Fousek (63. Sokol) – Petráň (88. Rybička), P. Černý (75. Mužík)
FC Sellier & Bellot : Nguyen – Piško, Wiesner, J. Štochl, Tusjak – Vodháněl, Janda, Hašek, Mil. Kadlec (70. Jeslínek) – Fotr, Hadaščok
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Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
Well framed! Love the tree on the left ;o)