Library humour. Books Borrowed And Bought, And I Become A Bluebird Fan For Ninety Two Minutes

Hello there hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday I went to the Porthcawl library for the first time this year. I was, I must admit a little late so needed to pay a small fine. So put the books down on the counter as the librarian approached me. Behind her were two other ladies looking at a computer.

"Just need to pay my debt to society".

"Well" she responded "We'll need to get the dungeon ready".

To which I said: "I thought you were going to throw the book at me"

Alright it's hardly a "Woody Allen when he was funny" remark. Still it wasn't bad. And it earned me a small ripple of applause which for a library is the equivalent to a standing ovation.

Have decided to limit the books I borrow from the library to two. One football book and the other well anything that takes my fancy. Having said that it is stretching it to say that this is a football book.

Mark Chapman - The Love Of The Game

This book is about how he tries to instill a love of sport to his children. I must be honest here and say that for reasons of her unwillingness on some sports and just bad luck with injuries on others have not really been successful with my daughter. But I'll chat about that once I've finished reading this. Can though relate to it, which is the reason I picked it up.

My second choice could not be more different:

Marian Keyes - Under the Duvet (actually photographed above one)

I have mentioned before in this blog how I believe that Marian Keyes is a brilliant writer undermined by chick lit book covers and blurb. This is a collection of her journalism (I mean would you expect a cover like that for Alistair Cooke?) so I'm hopeful.

I didn't have much time to spend once I finished with the library. But armed with £3.57 from my Penguin paperback budget went to the PAWS charity shop. Bought two books for a total of 50p. What really pleased me was that they were both on the old numbering system.

On the other hand:

835 - C S Forester - The Happy Return

As I've recently explained when discussing The Commodore I'm not a C S Forester fan at the moment because I believe UKIP would lap the over the top patriotism, all foreigners are flawed mantra that ran through that novel. So I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to reading another novel by him for a while.

The other book could not be more different:

D114 - Vasko Popa - Selected Poems

Vasko Popa was a "Yugoslav" (when this was published - was born in Serbia) poet. I've made it clear that poetry and me rarely get on. But I'm intrigued by this and will give it a fair wind when it's name comes up on the pile of the great unread.

It had been a while, other than watching Penybont FC, that the stars of the universe would align that I would be so aligned that I could watch some live sport. But later that afternoon I discovered through Twitter that the Cardiff  Under 23 team would be playing in the city stadium that evening and it would be free (including, a factor crucial to me for going to matches at Cardiff City in an evening, the car park). Daughter would be at guides, wife would have the chance to watch whatever Downton Abbey replacement TV is throwing these days and I would watch live football. Happy family life.

As I've made clear previously, Cardiff City, along with Swansea City, Newport County and Leyton Orient, belong in that small group of teams that I genuinely wish well as long as they're not playing West Ham. And as they were not facing any of the other teams I've just mentioned was happy enough to be a Bluebird fan for ninety minutes plus stoppage time.

I drove to the Cardiff City Stadium early. I'd done this once before and I knew that essentially it would be a few blocks of the stadium that would be occupied by fans so consequently had a good chance of a decent car park space. Once that was done went to what I had not realised before was a surprisingly small McDonalds (given how busy it must be for match days) for a meal. Once finished went inside the stadium.

Bluebird Country

From a distance new football stadiums look as if alien spacecraft have just landed ready to request to be taken to your leader. With the nearby Millenium stadium Cardiff has two relatively close together. That presumably is one of  the privileges of capital city status.

I'd taken the book Bobby Fischer Goes To War with me to read during the breaks and claimed on Twitter that I was the first person to take a book on chess to a Cardiff City game. Their Twitter feed quickly came back to say that they would need to "....check.Mate".

But for now....

...I'm still claiming this

Cardiff's opponents were Ipswich Town who apparently judging by their away strip seemed to think of themselves as the Barcelona of Suffolk. Still when the match began they were the ones who came closest to scoring in the first minute.

Beware Barcelona . Boys in Tractors are coming for you

Both teams played the opening minutes full of energy, youth and enthusiasm. As a fifty three old man I hated them for it.

But around the twenty sixth minute Cardiff scored. As I recall it was a response to a parry of a first attempt. But It didn't matter how they scored, they scored. One nil.

And from the moment the first half was mainly one set of Cardiff attacks after another. You've heard of an "unlucky bounce"? Well in this match there was an unlucky ricochet as the Cardiff shot went from the goalkeeper to a defender and then to safety to Ipswich. One nil is therefore how the first half ended.

So to the second half. You will note from this picture the Ipswich goalkeeper. Dressed in a colour that I could only describe as motorway maintenance.

Presumably cycling to Suffolk after the game

After that picture was taken Cardiff scored a second.A shot by James Waite. All seemed to be going smoothly then.....but

There came the moment where the Cardiff defence went all Rip Van Winkle when there was a run along the left, a cross and the oncoming Ipswich player slotted the ball to the net. Two - One.

Around the seventy fifth minute order was restored when Matt Kennedy scored a delightful free kick that got everyone outside of Suffolk applauding in admiration. It must have been particularly sweet given that two Ipswich players in separate incidents were booked for tackles on him last seen in a Jackie Chan movie. Three - One.

Five minutes after where. after a pass went astray the Ipswich manager threw a water bottle down to the ground in anger. He was by far the loudest person in the stadium that evening. His equivalents on the home technical area seemed to say nothing until ninety minutes had passed when all of a sudden they were shouting things to their players. Ninety minutes gone. Three one ahead and now you want to say something? Did not get that.

Anyway made no difference. The Match finished with the victory to Cardiff City.

Earlier I'd poked fun at the Ipswich goalie's taste in luminous clothing. But let me also say this. There are matches where a team is comprehensively beaten but their best player turns out to be the goalkeeper because he (or she) stopped the score being much worse. This was the case here. Michael Crowe put his body on the line constantly during the match to thwart what seemed to be near certain Cardiff goals. Judging solely on this game Ipswich should do their damnest to keep him.

Thank you Cardiff City. It was fun.

Until the next time.