Passing Comment: Win or lose – Wales at the World Cup was special
Passing Comment: Win or lose – Wales at the World Cup was special
By Sue Vincent Jones:
At last, Wales pitched up at the World Cup to take our team global after six decades of pain.
Cymru kicked off on a damp, dreary November evening – a massive 64 years after their last appearance in the tournament.
And wasn’t our Anthem just before the memory-making match a spine-tingling special occasion too?
As a proud and patriotic Welsh woman, I loved seeing our lads do the business in Doha. Call me controversial but it’s football all the way in our house as that oval shaped ball just doesn’t cut it for me.
Perhaps it’s all the naff Daffodil face wear, giant leeks, and all the other stereotypical stuff that puts me off. Give me a classy bucket hat any day!
Mind you, rather like our current rugby team, our national squad didn’t exactly start with a blaze of glory, did they? We wait about 400 years and get that…for 45 minutes.
Football the first half, Pel Droed the second – thank God for brilliant Bale. Pity that nerve and gutsy attitude didn’t extend to wearing the One Love armband Gareth. But I suppose that’s another story.
I loved soaking up the atmosphere in the pub sat amongst a sea of Yma O Hyd headwear and the hopes and dreams of a nation.
Surely the whole of our town fell silent as nearly every home turned on the telly, pulled up a chair in the pub, or started streaming through the socials. Flicking through Facebook, it was great to see the Barry massive as part of the Red Wall flying our Dragon flag.
So good to see our residents lapping up the atmosphere – either in the popular Tenerife camp, or at the stadium itself. Team Barry were out in force too – well, with one notable exception.
I bet our football mad late Mike Whyman crossed your mind didn’t he? He did mine.No doubt he would have been cheering right in the mix of the Middle East even as we clocked up a dismal performance, and a defeat, against Iran.
But by the time this column rolls right off the Press, we will have smashed the Saes of course – I’m crossing absolutely everything.
All truly memorable occasions that will be fresh in our Footie mad minds long after the Panini Sticker Book has been put away.
Diolch Wales. Yma O Hyd.
Glamorgan Star note: Sue bravely wrote this column before the final group match.
- The views expressed by columnists of this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Glamorgan Star, its employees or its proprietors
| — Passing Comment: Memorial benches show that Barry remembers
Pencoed tangled up by ‘Seaweeds’
Primary school’s former deputy head is banned from teaching
I make no apologies for calling Plaid Cymru ‘separatists’
‘The importance of participation and continued learning’
Opposition leaders clash with First Minister over independence rally
How Kevin saved a stranger’s life
