Buckinghamshire 1 - High Wycombe - we are on our way to Wembley , on our way to Wembley


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Published: May 23rd 2022
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Sometimes you get wrapped up in the moment . You get carried away . Deepak Chopra said something like "There will never be time when your life is not this moment ". You get emotional . You don't think of the inconvenience nor the cost but you go with the flow . You have to do it . You may not get the chance again . And so it was when Wrexham AFC found themselves after playing extremely well in the FA Trophy Final at Wembley the home of English football . It was an honour . A time of great pride and with the tickets only costing £10 it was hard to put off going . OK it would be an extremely long day. A costly one in terms of putting petrol in the car . The hotel at High Wycombe seemed an excellent choice at £29 a night and the train went straight past and stopped at Wembley central . What could go wrong ?

We paid for the hotel and the train tickets before we left for France . We ordered our stadium tickets from a car park in Beziers . We had spent weeks looking forward to the trip and bringing the trophy home . Surely that was not much to ask from a team that had at times promised so much . The last minute printing off of the bookings and the tickets made it all feel very real .

We set off early. It was going to be a round the houses drive to High Wycombe . Roadworks had closed the area around Birmingham meaning lengthy delays . The obvious choice was A49 and A5 to the M6 toll . The roads were clear . It was a Sunday so not as much traffic on the roads as on a weekday. We were full of enthusiasm . It was going to be a day out to enjoy. We both had been to the old Wembley stadium many years ago but this would be first for us . What would our seats be like ? What about the view ? As we sped on we discussed where to park , how long it would take to get to the stadium and what tonight would bring . The verges were all green and full of small white Ox Eye Daisies . It was a delight . The M6 toll cost us £6.70 and saved us time and led us to the M42 and M40. All was fine as we drove through the start of Warwickshire and sure as eggs are eggs things went quickly downhill. We started to catch up with coaches full of our supporters and cars full of couples in their team shirts heading the same way . Roadworks had closed a junction on the motorway and we had to detour through pretty Henley in Arden . Black and white cottages , what looked like old coaching inns, pretty shops and people . On a different day it would have been lovely to stop off there and explore .

We ended up back on the motorway calling in for a quick walk round . We missed our girl Gabby on this trip. The Wrexham fans were milling about. Some in the iconic red kit of the dragons , others in the green away kit and some like me in the third kit which was white . This was the one that would be worn today. There was a carnival atmosphere even here in the motorway services with stalls selling scarves , hats , large hands to wave and red hair wigs . Wrexham fans had taken over the motorway services .

On over the Cherwell again and again and into High Wycombe . A non descrepit sort of place . A town on the map because of its easy railway connections for London . Cheaper to live here 30 minutes by train from Marylebone. I had been once before by train but that was many years ago . I had no memories of it . I had come in by the station but I had little idea where it was . It was one of those strange places . Quite busy for a Sunday . New mixing with old . A massive multi story car park attached to the Eden shopping centre which housed every large shop you could wish for . None of the independents just all the big characterless chains . We breakfasted at Pattiserie Valerie paying London prices for a big breakfast and scrambled eggs on toast . Our hotel was just round the corner . I worried about the car being left on a multistory . The floor we chose was packed and the spaces tiny . It was dark and gloomy as all multistory car parks are .

We got lost wandering round the shops . Each alleyway looked similar with the exception of a different shop name . In the end we had to ask how to get to the railway station . We were looked at oddly . Was it our football shirts ? Did we look like aged hooligans ready for a fight ? No the young did not understand the word railway . They looked vague . I tried again - train station . That time we got a response as the young girl pointed in the general direction of the High Street which did look more charming than the charmless shopping centre . We passed by the polish food restaurant and I clicked the church but there was little else to fire up my imagination .

The train station was small and tidy and we joined the queues . Having printed our tickets off at home we placed them on the machine and the gates clicked open . The notice board told us the next train was due in on Platform 3 at 12.03 . We had three minutes to race over the footbridge to the other side of the lines . The journey into Wembley began in earnest as the train rumbled on stopping at various stops on the way . We are on our way to Wembley , on our way to Wembley .

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