Currying the can!
A year ago, I was invited to join the Poolie Vegetarian Curry Club. A group of like-minded Hartlepool United supporters who meet now and then over a curry (vegetarian or not) and a pint to discuss all things football and other random stuff ranging from foreign travel to stag nights.
Last week and for the first time this year, a dozen of us gathered at our usual haunt for a pint before heading across Church Street for a sumptuous meal of various poppadoms, starters, main courses, several types of rice and nan breads. Earlier, I had received a friendly message: “Just to confirm Thursday is a 7pm meet. Don’t want anyone turning up late and missing out, do we?”
I was greeted with laughter on my arrival. The reason is only obvious to those who read the Facebook post I wrote on the last Saturday of the season.
That day I had got up around 8 am, enjoyed a healthy breakfast of avocado, tomatoes, brown toast and black tea. I later spent a lazy couple of hours writing my cookery page and designing others in Hartlepool Life. Mid-morning, I had a shower, made myself a cup of coffee and carried on working. By around lunchtime, feeling peckish, I reheated some of the lamb curry I had cooked on Friday. It tasted even better second time around.
At around 2 pm I headed down to Victoria Park, excited at the prospect of the last match of the season. As I turned into Morrison’s car park, I saw lots of Pools supporters heading out and getting into their cars. Had the match been cancelled? Had there been a bomb scare? I wound down my car window and asked a guy: “What happened?”
He said: “We won 3-2!”
I punched the air and said: “Fantastic!”
It was only then that the penny dropped. I calmly parked in a quiet spot and sat in total silence. I flicked through the BBC football results. Pools had won 3-2 against Salford in the last match of the season. And I missed it because I hadn’t checked the start time.
After 15 minutes of thinking of ways of consoling myself for missing the last match of the season, I sheepishly headed back home.
For a minute, I toyed with the idea of telling anyone who asked why I wasn’t at the match that I’d been forced to go shopping with the wife. But I later wrote a sorrowful confession on Facebook which attracted sympathy as well as amusement.
During the meal, I gradually found out what I had missed in one of the best matches of the season.
I have yet to recover from the shock of seeing Pools supporters leaving Victoria Park sporting beaming smiles and walking on air. I even daydreamed that the match would be replayed behind closed doors for all of us who had missed it.
But most important of all, I have promised myself never to let that happen again.
Does anyone know the date and time of the first match of the season?