It is rapidly approaching midday on 20th August 2013 and I have only been up an hour having returned to bed around seven and sleeping until 10.44, frittering away the time playing games against the computer since rising, On Friday morning last after eating that consolation breakfast I had purchased some healthy bran with nuts and dried fruit from an Aldi next door to the Travel Lodge at Chaddesden Derby after crossing over the road to see if the hairdressers also offered a service to men, but seeing only one assistant in the midst of a full perm for a female customer I decided not to wait and commenced the journey to a Travel Lodge at Perry Barr on the north west outskirts of Birmingham close to the M6 for a good night’s sleep before rising early for 20 20 Finals Day.
My route took me towards the centre of Derby a city I have only previously visited on its outskirts to Pride Park, the home of Derby County and which is located also just off the A 52 known locally by its official name, the Brian Clough Way. Finding the ring road I went in the wrong way round for the A38 going South remembering my experience on the previous visit to Mansfield and taking the A38 to reach the home of Nottinghamshire cricket, Trent Bridge, using the Park and Ride Service. The A38 south is a fast two lane dual carriage way which I continued until reaching the A453m a cross country route which take one direct to Perry Barr. Around midday I was full of thirst from the six slices of bacon, eaten with four sausages, three fried eggs, scrambled eggs and tomatoes wolfed at breakfast. Coming to a roundabout and seeing the sign Tamworth four miles and believing this was going in the opposite direction I nevertheless took the turn deciding I would take a break, buy myself a cold drink, although I was still full from the morning’s excess and did not want lunch. Not having breakfast this morning, this reminder of that breakfast makes me hungry and I will prepare lunch shortly.
Tamworth is one of those towns which in ordinarily circumstances I would have no cause to visit, no football league club, no cricket or other, to my knowledge would cause me to go there or pass close by. According to Wikipedia “Tamworth is a large market town and larger local government district in Staffordshire, England, located 14 miles (23 km) north-east of Birmingham city centre and 103 miles (166 km) north-west of London. Tamworth takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through it, as does the River Anker. At the 2011 census the town had a population of 76,900.[1] Tamworth is the second largest settlement in Staffordshire after Stoke-on-Trent.Tamworth is the home of the historic Tamworth Castle and Moat House, and has a non-league football team, Tamworth FC. The Snowdome, the UK's first full-sized real-snow indoor ski slope is located in Tamworth, and only a short distance away is Drayton Manor Theme Park.The town's main industries include logistics, engineering, clothing, brick, tile and paper manufacture. It was also home to the Reliant car company, which produced the famous three-wheeled Robin model and the Scimitar sports car for several decades.”
I discovered car firms another business complexes on entering the town and noted signs to a whole range of car parks having passed by one of the rivers and signs to the Castle. Although Friday afternoon there were no many pedestrians about apart from two parties of young people mainly female and several with bright luminous coloured hair. Later watching local news I found out that this was the weekend of the V festival which is held at two sites, one in South Staffs at Weston Park, the other at Chelmsford Essex but where the same major acts going from one venue to the other and this included the only performance of Beyonce, plus Kings of Leon, Jesse J, Basement Jaxx and over 100 groups and individual artists included a comedy stage,, a futures stage among the 5 stages available at each site. Wikipedia mentions criticism at the commercialism of the venture with water confiscated at the door and costing £2 and programme £10 without which you do not know which artists are playing where and when. I am still hurting from having to buy a small bottle of water for £4 at the Rosebowl 20 20 which had not been chilled.
Unfortunately my tour around the inner ring road with various indications of enclosed shopping centres did not reveal the kind of local news and tobacconist likely to have a cold drinks store. I decided to continue on the journey, hoping to do better at Sutton Coldfield which although larger that Tamworth 106000 to 76000 came across initially as a pleasant market town and indeed it become a commuter town for Birmingham located about eight miles from the city centre. My first encounter was deceptive but led to an extraordinary coincidence.
I found a small car park off what I believed was the main street and close to the railway station, intending to head for the nearest place offering a cold drink and also a comfort break. However immediately opposite was the sign for barbers and from the looking inside their appeared to be no customers or again populace about the streets although the others buildings appears small commercial operations such as solicitors, estates agents and the like.
The barbers appeared to be run by a woman who admitted during the conversation to being born in 1961, two years before I attended Birmingham University for a year. The younger assistant who tended my hair was born in the 1980’s although she appeared early 20’s than later. Mentioning that I lived near Newcastle led to mention of my lack of regional accent and to saying my family came from Gibraltar, Spain and Malta. It is here the coincidence occurred because shortly before my arrival they had attended a customer who had raised the issue of Gibraltar and the antic of the Spanish Government. The younger assistant had not grasped that Gibraltar is more than a Rock and has a resident populations around 30000 with about the same number of Spanish citizens employed and several million tourists arriving each year by sea, plane and coach. This discussion also got on to the issue of parentage.
On arrival I had mentioned the accident of finding them when searching for a cold dink and the colder assistant, manager owner offered a black current cordial which went down in two swallows. The younger appeared never to have travelled far from her home town and never been abroad. Given the time that was taken plus the cold drink the cost at £6,50 was excellent and set me fait for the rest of the day which was just as well as
I had a merry dance finding the 453 again, heading at one point for Sutton Park a huge areas of lakes, activities including restaurants and then finding the road went sailing past the Travel lodge , located back from the road, going passed the greyhound stadium on the opposite of the road which ought to gave alerted that I had missed the left hand turn, continued until reaching Perry Barr roundabout where there is also an under pass/overpass, cannot remember which straight into the city, took the wrong turning back and then had to reverse before taking the slip road back to the greyhound stadium and then heading northward until spotting the Travel Lodge on the right.
This is a four storey building with parking under cover to one side on the ground floor and a cafe on the other side where I was delighted to drink not one but two cans of a lemonade based soft drink called lilt. The cafe closed later because of staffing difficulties and I decided to resist the morning breakfast options discovering a local convenience store combined with a Subway sandwich outlet where I acquired a pack of rolls to add to the two packs of two ciabatta plus a pint of milk. This provided breakfast on two days with the fruit fibre and the salami rolls for food that evening ( two ciabatta) and for the cricket the following day, (two ciabatta and one roll) and for lunch on the way home on Sunday). To one side of the lodge was a car dealership and across the way a large Wicks store and then further out on the same side a Halford Motor centre. On the same side as the Lodge but set back and using a small road was a Goal project, which three floodlit all weather small football pitches and one indoor providing a commercial opportunity for young people to test their improve their skills as well as play small friendly, or not so friendly games. The rest of the large area was vacant grassed over space plus wooded background hiding a road and railway.
I stayed in for the rest of the day putting off the challenge of getting to the ground and back late at night in darkness. I continue to debate whether this was a good or not so good move. The following morning I set off between 7.15 and 7.30 and in fairness I managed to find Calthorpe Park with my blue pre paid car park pass although the signs were small and useless and will be the cause of complaint to both the ECB and Warwickshire, and not marked blue. Given that Edgbaston has been awarded the competition for four years my protests will be loud and clear.
However this was nothing like the problem I experience on the return journey when after rain which prevented further play I decided to leave before it got dark appreciating that I was going to have difficulties locating the road to Perry Barr again, It is impossible to remember all the failures and bad decision although the lack of good street directions and the pressure from other motorist bullies was considerable, thus confirming my hatred for the place, in part because of the unhappy time I had there when studying and training at the University after my Oxford experience. I did gain a tour of the city centre passing the home of the Birmingham Symphony and where an active nightlife was growing apace.
I also went south, east and west on separate occasions. I managed to find a garage which in addition to topping up on badly needed petrol provided a large size map of the UK which offered some help. The assistant showed me the route on his phone but the case for Sat Navigation became a strong one although my trips to Scarborough, Brighton (Train) Derby, and Hove via South Croydon are now familiar to me so this is something for the future.
The information was clear but I made two major mistakes. The first was not checking when I needed to get off the A/M 38 and ending up at spaghetti junction with three motorway like M6, M5 and M38 and all taking me to the east of where I needed to be. I tried to gain info local convenience store when going north on the A38 knowing I was no where near where i wanted to be. They could not help and three local lads on bikes did advise going back to the shops and turning right but I headed back where I had been before and then on a road towards Sutton Coalfield and then Erdington and had I continued along either of these road I may well have reached the 453. However I stopped and asked a man who was on way back from a pub who thought carefully for a few minuets and said I should continue north and then turn left at traffic lights and continue for sometime and then he paused as if unsure how to explain the next apart of the journey. I decided to following his initial advice which fitted into what my now was an accurate sense of direction required and travelled what in effect was a road parallel to the 453 but lower. At one point I was unsure given signs saying Aston Villa parking but a query with local lads revealed that the Perry Barr roundabout was a short distance away. I eventually as back long after the darkness and two hours after setting offing four times the length of journey of the morning. It could have been worse.
I paid the price for not making the effort the previous evening and then for not getting Geographa’s Midlands Birmingham guide. I thought I had one but could not when searching the car and my map collection beforehand. Was I glad to be back although instead of being able to listen to game I had left my digital radio headphone back at the Lodge and was only able to hear the closing over back on arrival. I had to wait until yesterday evening to watch the highlights of the final over one hour. Now to the 20 20 Finals day and my beefs with the hosting ground.
As mentioned signing from the centre of the city was pathetic as before this was no indication where Edgbaston was located and I found the link more by luck than judgement. The entrance to the parking entrance was down a side street and it was only the presence of parking attendants which signalled I had found the entrance as there was no immediate markings. There was also rain in the air which did not help to raise spirits. I was one of the first vehicles to arrive around 8 am about an hour before the ground officially opened. However when I left early the number of vehicles in the car park was surprisingly low so how the majority of the 20000 made there way remains a mystery although has mentioned in another piece i was able to attend the final day of a Test here in which Flintoff and Pietersen were batting and parked within a sort distance of an entrance in a residential street similar to the situation at Leeds.
I enjoyed coffee and snooze and as the weather appeared to improve and some of those parked commenced to make their way along a path at the roadside to the left of the park and with the impressive floodlights which are at an acute angle over the playing service from the uprights. I decided it was time to venture out of the car. Parked at the verge meant that i would be able to leave quickly when I decided to so.
I joined up with two Edgbaston members who expressed concern at the lack of signs and were uncertain themselves as to the best way to get to the ground as one entrance was closed because of building works. Fortunately the closest entrance was at the back of the ground to the entrance but almost immediately opposite the entrance to the Wyatt stand I needed.
I had chosen an aisle seat on lime to well up the stand but below the walk around space which creates a nightmare for those sitting the other side. My second beef is at the stewards who failed n two significant counts. First they appeared to have no idea of the seat numbering and blocks and for the greater part fo the morning people struggles to get their places. Secondly once the play commenced, bearing in mind this is only a 20 over innings, they failed to prevent people entering the stand for their seats. This was deplorable.
Facing me across the field is the new huge multilevel stand which occupies more than the playing surfaces. I was able to explore the ground once the seat was secured and I relaxed for a time.
The stand opposite had an uncover area throughout its length providing cover for several thousand people. Most fo the outside seating is also covered, there is also a wide undercover space close to main entrance and there was a cinema size screen showing the TV coverage, There were two other large screens outside which showed the Man U game against Swansea. Along there the covered walkway there were also smaller screen similar to those along the walkways inside football grounds. This was impressive. Close to the entrance of my stand there was a Real Ale bar which also provided good seating including armchairs with TV screen and good carpet on which I lay relaxed during the 90 minutes between the second semi final and the final.
There was a good range of food concession around the stadium and here is by third beef because I went for a burger in the evening which was advertised as having various fillings but was served plain and over cooked to burnt and had to make do with mustard which I managed to get along the side of my face according to a helpful passing couple!
Now to the other positives because given the rain in the air which fell at times the amount fo uncover facilities is impressive. I had come very well prepared wearing the over trousers on leaving the car as well as the rain and windcheater, my fake straw hat and the small umbrella which is damaged and needs to be replace, yet again!
The atmosphere, significantly alcohol fuelled was excellent through the day, in part created by the entertainment provided by the club and comprised a 12 person drumming group, split into four groups of three and where the surface was such that the drumming sticks caught fire at times. The instrumentalism was brilliant with sessions between the three games and shorter pieces throughout the day. There was also some flame swallowers later on and around my side of the stadium and opposite there were the electronic flame burst which wafted hot air towards when the wind direction was right. The younger people turned up in fancy dress agogo and on my travels around the stadium I was asked to take photos of one group of excited young people dressed as animals..
The amount of alcohol consumption continued to amaze with one group concentrating on jugs of Pimms, three at a time and where refilled half dozen to dozen times. I was lucky in my viewing position because in front was a very tall man but they appeared to have been allocated three seats and the seat on my side was also kept vacant so I had an uninterrupted view. Two young men were not fortunate but they were pleased to be able to move down the row after Essex supporters left after their team was defeated in the first semi final. Now to the cricket and the way the day went was perfect.
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