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Published: June 13th 2018
The eyes of the world are turning to Russia, but in other corners of the globe the thoughts were very much on Enfield! FIFA has certain criteria to be admitted to even the qualification party and not been recognised as a sovereign nation means however good you are, you aren't playing. I had never previously given much thought to disputed territories or unrecognised states before visiting Transnistria a couple of years ago. I like to think I am quite geographically astute, but have to confess walking past the embassies of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the centre of Tiraspol that I wasn't totally sure of their location. I specifically note these two embassies, because there are very few. You aren't going to find the US embassy tucked away in a first floor office. One of the problems of being a breakaway state is that nobody wants to know you. Despite effectively being backed up by enough tanks to worry the Moldovans, even the Russians don't recognise the place. Which brings us to a football tournament in North London and why it is of such importance to many minnows of the world game. We'll come back to the CONIFA World Football Cup
CONIFA World Football Cup Final 2018
Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, Donkey Lane, Enfield2018 later.
We had advantageously parked up on the opposite side of the canal from the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium to ensure a speedy exit. The venue is tucked away behind a David Lloyd fitness centre, just off the main A10 road. A small home made cardboard sign pointed the way towards the "official" car park, which was as much an attempt to distract any visiting fans away from the barrier controlled high tech parking for the adjacent fitness centre. There were no exclusion zones in place here, just a girl with a bike and her homemade sign by the traffic signals. The floodlights were not particularly visible. This is no Moscow super stadium. It is a community athletics stadium and home to Enfield Town 1893 FC, who play in the giddy heights of Bostick League football. After a previously trophy laden existence in the past, Enfield went bust and lived a nomadic life. The return to the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium is a homecoming of sorts. A school kids tournament was underway on the sports fields next door, as we wandered past. A steward was busy trying to control parking even this early in the day.
Enfield
Barclays Bank ..... home to the world's first cash machine He bemoaned the fact thst athletes had still been allowed the usual 11.00 am session. He updated a volunteer. ..."they're expecting a 2,000 crowd later. We need to get this place ready". The Queen Elizabeth II Stadium began life in 1939, but the Second World War intervened. The stadium was eventually completed in 1953. I wonder what it would have been called had world events not intervened. However, the centrepiece was very much a product of the Art Deco 1930s. There are a few remaining examples of historic sport stands - the main stand at the Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow springs to mind - but most have been sacrificed in pursuit of corporate hospitality and progress. The main tower of the pavilion soared majestically into the blue sky behind and houses the café underneath. The rest of the stadium is very much an athletics venue with 2 small covered terraces behind each goal and some covered seats on the far side.
The pre-match reconnaissance over, we wandered off to see the other sights that Enfield had to offer. Enfield is a name synonymous with rifles and motorcycles. The Lee Enfield rifle was the weapon of choice for
the British military until the 1950s and the name derives from the presence of a munitions factory in the vicinity dating from the early 1800s. The motorcycles are ironically nothing to do with north London and were the product of the Enfield Cycle Company, based in Redditch in Worcestershire. Whilst Enfield is now immersed in the urban sprawl of Greater London and tucked in neatly for access to both the A10 and M25, it was once a days’ journey from the centre of town. It once boasted a great royal house – Elsyng Palace. The proximity of the hunting grounds at Enfield Chase made it a favourite area of Henry VIII. A Sir Thomas Lovell had constructed a fine country house on the hill above Enfield, which Henry coveted. Lovell decided to do the decent thing, probably before Henry decided to take it anyway. History shows that he generally got what he wanted. A property trade was agreed. Henry got Elsyng and Sir Thomas acquired royal properties in Leicestershire. The North South property divide clearly wasn’t as wide as great at the time. The Palace was much remodelled and became a great favourite, not only for hunting but also as
a house where the royal children spent significant time during their early years. It is said that Prince Edward (later to be the Edward VI) learned he was to become King following his father’s death in 1548. Elizabeth I subsequently visited occasionally, but the royal house fell out of favour when the Stuart dynasty replaced the Tudors. The house fell into ruin and was eventually swallowed up by the nearby estate. The bricks were largely used on other nearby building projects and today very little evidence of Elsyng exists. The lands were acquired by the neighbouring Forty Hall property. Forty Hall was the country residence of self-made man, Nicholas Rainton. A member of the haberdashers guild, he became wealthy as a trader and rose to prominence as a politician. Rainton was a former Lord Mayor of London, which wasn’t bad for a 3
rd son from Lincolnshire who had to make his own way in the world after his initial apprenticeship. He decided to build himself a country residence. Forty Hall stands on the commanding position of Forty Hill, just a couple of miles from what is now the centre of Enfield. The view from the front lawn stretches down over
CONIFA World Football Cup Final 2018
Tibet and Bristol Rovers dream on...... an avenue of trees towards the site where Elsyng once stood. Forty Hall has undergone extensive restoration in recent years and is now owned as a community facility. A small museum in the house details the rise of Nicholas Rainton, the house the he had built and the subsequent changes in ownership. The last private owners were the Parker Bowles family, who now have their own royal connection – Camilla was married to Andrew Parker-Bowles, before she later joined the firm after marrying Charley. The young Andrew grew up here before the sale of the house in 1951. Forty Hall now funds the upkeep as a wedding and function venue. The tables were being laid for a wedding reception later in the day. The good folk of Enfield were busy enjoying the grounds with their dogs, whilst others tucked into their picnic in the incredibly large walled garden. We had a coffee in the courtyard café and moved off back down the hill towards Enfield village. Enfield Village was quite tranquil, given the traffic chaos being caused by some temporary roadworks a few hundred metres away.
One of the finest buildings in the town centre of Enfield
is a bank. There is nothing particularly unusual in that itself, but a small blue plaque on the front façade gives a clue to its place in history. Barclays Bank, Enfield. 27
th June 1967. The location of the first ATM cash machine in the world. There has been much debate in recent times about the move towards a cashless society now that we other electronic forms of transferring and paying for goods, but here in an unassuming corner of north London the hole in the wall revolution commenced. The US were lagging behind in this technology and would be another 2 years before jumping on board. They were busy with other cutting edge technology at the time with the small matter of a man to land on the moon before the Russians sneaked off with the prize. There are some photographic images in the front windows of the branch, which show the scene on that April day. A crowd gathers outside to watch Reg Varney, dressed in his casual slacks and golf hat, withdraw the first £10 from the strange machine. Reg who, I hear you say? Reg was the star of one of the biggest sitcom shows of the
time, On The Buses, so I guess they were trying to make out that this was a development for the average man in the street as opposed to getting a film star or footballer to do the deed. Reg was probably also available. Barclays also chose Enfield as a model community and it handily happened to have enough suitable window space to mount the new machine. ATM machines are apparently now superseded by the internet and the world of contactless payments, so time will tell whether the bank branch survives to display the plaque in another 50 years. The rest of Enfield was busy with the usual Saturday shopping. The Other Half – always one for a big game – was with me and had spied a Boots opticians down the street. The fact she had seen it was a good sign. She has been having bother with her new glasses. We popped in and they helpfully made a slight adjustment for her to keep her happy. Good customer service. Specs adjusted, we ventured into the nearby shopping centre and discovered a Waitrose. A free coffee is always handy, once we had finished confusing the till operator who was trying
to absorb all the requirements of his first day. We called in for a feed at Pizza Express, using a reward voucher. We spoke with a couple on the next table, who were also off to the big event. They warned off a delayed kick off, due to larger than anticipated crowds at the 3
rd place playoff earlier. The waiter looked on bemused. He was oblivious to a world cup event on his manor. Is it the World Cup of cricket?
We finished dining and headed for Donkey Lane. The address is genuine and not us casting disparaging remarks on the quality of football we might witness. CONIFA is basically an organisation that is trying to provide a platform for those not in the official FIFA circles to have a football tournament. After the success of the 2014 and 2018 tournaments, the hosts this time were Barawa. Barawa? A disputed territory in Somalia. The Other Half often says I am writing on the wrong forum – you mention football, people switch off. However I see this as a clear example of the link between the two – football and travel. Is Barawa listed as a Trevelblog destination?
The 2018 Final was due to kick off at 1800 hours Enfield time, but the couple on Pizza Express were correct. Tannoy announcements were soon overheard. There would be a 30 minute delay. The steward overheard in the morning was out with his crowd estimate. The eventual declared figure was 2,673. The reality was possibly more, as no one actually cleared the ground after the 3
rd place match. There was definitely 3 dogs in attendance, although whether they could be classed as Non-League Dogs is open to debate. Sprout was first through the turnstiles, closely followed by “Galatasaray” Alfie and Leila, who was a natural born successor to Crystal in carrying the Norfolk Terrier banner at matches. The tournament had been hotly contested by those taking part – Abkhazia, Barawa, Cascadia, Ellan Vannin (otherwise known as the Isle of Man), Kabylia, Matabeleland, Padania, Szekely Land, Tamil Eelam, Panjab, Tibet, Tuvalu, Western Armenia and the United Koreans of Japan – but the eventual Final threw up Northern Cyprus and Karpatalja. There had been goals and controversy along the way. The Isle of Man had taken the hump over player registration and in true “it is my ball, so we are not
playing anymore fashion” had disappeared off home. Matabeleland had added the star quality to events by field Bruce Grobbelaar in goal, but he couldn’t save the day. The dancing girls in national costume added colour. The North Cyprus coach doubled as a warm up act for the crowd. Karpatalja brought the smoke show. North Cyprus countered with the music. Bristol Rovers played a key part with flags. The scene was set with ex-Premier League ref, Mark Clattenberg, taking the whistle in the middle.
Northern Cyprus were the favourites with a big “home” north London support. The region of Karpatalja were a lesser known commodity and hailed from the Hungarian speaking area of the Ukraine close to the border. They reinforced their lack of bodies with a sizeable number of smoke grenades in red, white and green to represent the Hungarian colours. The rest of the crowd was made up of interested football fans from the non-league circuit and others in the CONIFA family. A large Tibet flag (with Bristol Rovers insignia added for good measure) hung from the Main Stand. The Tibet players stood over the railings, looking down and wondering what might have been. A host
of other players were also wandering around the ground – Abkhazia, Matabeleland, United Koreans of Japan – and a guy from the Cascadia camp stood on a table and waved his large flag around after their 6
th placed finish. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves apart from one member of the United Koreans, who maintained full disguise in his face mask throughout the 2
nd half.
At this point, I would like to describe the pulsating football and goals raining down. Alas, fear gripped as it does at any level and a tepid 0-0 draw followed. Ex St Mirren striker, Billy, came closest to breaking the deadlock with a few decent efforts but in the end the unadventurous nature of both teams didn’t deserve the victory. The beautiful day went downhill even further after about 75 minutes, as the threatening clouds finally released their deluge on the expectant crowd. We reached penalties. A succession of bad misses and good saves saw the Karpatalja team preside. The majority of the crowd wandered off in the rain, leaving the players representing Karpatalja to wonder whether the Ukrainians would be best pleased with an alleged act of sporting treason. They can keep
the trophy warm until the next time. The big boys will be there at the next tournament. Yes, Yorkshire – God’s Own Country – are on a mission to conquer the football world.
Appendix 1 CONIFA World Football Cup Final Karpatalja 0 Northern Cyprus FC 0 (Karpatalja Won 3-2 on Pens) Date : Saturday 9
th June 2018 @ 1830 Hours
Venue : Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, Donkey Lane, Enfield, London. EN1 3PL
Attendance : 2,673
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Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
I love it when they wear their ethnic clothing!