TIDY TRIP TO BARRY ISLAND

Printed in the friendly v Arsenal youngsters Friday 29^th July 2022

1-0 to the Rebels in front of 1,248

I’m really not bothered about friendlies, but I’m not gonna lie, it was hard to resist an international friendly away weekend in Wales.

Still, if truth be told, it all got a bit confusing as we ended staying in Barry Island while the game got played at an athletics stadium miles down the road.

And I had to leave at half time.

And forgot to buy Welsh Cakes.

And the best place we found to drink on the island was my pub nemesis - Wetherspoons.

Football is weird; you spend so much of your free time with people for months, then they are dropped like some whirlwind romance. Then all of sudden the Rebel WhatsApp groups and social media starting pinging to life as we started to plan how to get back together in the Land of our Fathers. Well my Welsh granny actually, who came to Slough after falling pregnant to a black American serviceman. Not the done thing in the Valleys in the 1940’s. Infact one of my first memories is the smell off Welsh cakes cooked by said Welsh grandma on the Wexham estate, along with cracking my head open when I fell off a wheelbarrow. Which is no doubt the reason why I became a gardener rather than a Welsh cake.

Wanting to crack our heads open could describe Fridays Barry Island pub crawl as the Slough Town Are Massive started to descend from all corners of the globe. Well Brighton, Britwell, Burnham, Southampton, Essex and Alicante. Yes Deans cousin Jake diverted his holiday flight early to land in Cardiff and soak up the well lush atmosphere.

There was only one bar on the seafront while in town one served a pint so rank even we couldn’t stomach it. The trendy place across from our hotel, had decided that its best if we let them do the work and order from an app rather than that old fashioned come to the bar trick. Covid has changed many things, but online service from your table is not one I like very much. We could see the bar, the beer slowly being poured, but it was 20 minutes before it touched our parched lips.

Barry Island used to be a Butlins camp but now its got a tired looking fairground, a few tacky kiss-me-quick shops, and more chip shops than bars. While Slough got The Office treatment, Barry Island got Gavin and Stacey. We didn’t want to see what’s occurin and so dodged Nessa’s Slots and instead watched the seagulls dive-bombing anyone on the beach trying to eat. What it has got tho is some pun-tastic play on words. Who fancies going to Barrybados or seeing Bob Marley at Glaston-Barry? It was just a crying shame that Gordon Bennetts nightclub was closed.

Somewhere in amongst all this was a football match and Barry Town supporters couldn’t have been more accommodating.

The friendly came about because Macron make Barry's top as well as Sloughs. Macron is based in Cardiff and one of their directors part of their supporters run board. Like Slough, their ground is council owned, which comes with its limitations – like ripping up and replacing their artificial pitch late meaning our friendly was moved to Cardiff. We still met at their Jenner Park ground, where they laid out the red dragon carpet – well a smart minibus rather than Dave’s coaches. Our route took us to an out of town shopping carbuncle that every city seems lumbered with. But it was a groundhoppers dream. Cardiff City's ground opposite the Welsh Athletics International Sports Stadium with our final destination the Leckwith Stadium, which is part of the international sports campus.

The Cymru Premier has in recent years been dominated by a local computer company Total Network Solutions that is based in England. Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham, Merthyr, Newport and a few others ply their trade in the English pyramid – which weakens the league somewhat. But as Barrry fans pointed out, playing in the Welsh League means you get the chance to play in Europe, and if that happens you are quids in.

To say Barry have had a football roller-coaster history is understating it. From European cup games against Porto to last season being relegated to the Cymru South. Winning the Welsh League numerous times to going into administration and now being supporters run. Even with last seasons relegation they managed to average around 500.

Maybe Slough can claim that our Welsh heritage means we get a shot at a season in the Welsh League and Europe. Mind you, knowing our luck we will get drawn against TNS.

Oh and if your interested in such things, the game ended 2-2 and the players came over at the end to shake our hands. Which I missed, cos I had to get home. Still I got to bang a Welsh bin and give a rendition of ‘Biggest Trading Estate in Europe, Your Never Sing That.’

All in all, if truth be told a tidy trip.