Leicester City Fans roll out the Christmas Choir

I have been complaining about the lack of sun over the past four weeks. That’s because I like to complain and secondly because there has not been much sun over the past four weeks. I’m glad that we have got that clear. We have now reached Ipswich in our pre-Christmas sojourn to visit family and friends and the grey clouds are heavy over England, as well as Switzerland.

For reasons which now escape me, I thought that it might be a “nice” idea to go the Ipswich Town football match against Leicester City on the Saturday before Christmas. I secretly hoped that everyone would have reason not to come. I said to Ed: “It doesn’t kick off until 5.20 pm, so it’s a bit late”. “GREAT IDEA”, he replied. Ben was sure to have Christmas Shopping to do: “TERRIFIC”. Kevin would have to travel from Norwich “Dicey timetable; There’ll be works on the line”. “GREAT; Timetable will be fine”.

In the face of such overwhelming support, on the morning of the game, I saw one hopeful possibility. At minus 7 C, the game was bound to be called off. Not a bit of it. The game was on, and we met near the ground, suitably dressed for minus a lot, and the beginning of a serious snow storm. In my case, dressing suitably included two pairs of socks, heavy Swiss hiking boots, long johns, two pullovers and a skiing jacket, two pairs of gloves, two woolly hats and a blanket.

And what an evening’s entertainment we had. I know that you will say it was just because Ipswich Town won, but frankly, when you are an Ipswich Supporter, you don’t go expecting to win. You just want to see if your team can break some record for the most number of consecutive defeats and get into the Guinness Book of records.

The Stands were completely empty behind us, which meant we could stand up and stamp our feet to keep warm, instead of having to sit in seats designed for people who are less than 5 foot tall. We were sheltered from the storm, for reasons I do not understand and never felt cold. The players did a seriously good job of playing entertaining football in a couple of inches of snow, where injury must have been a serious possibility and the referee and linesman (or whatever they are called these days) must have had serious difficulties in seeing the lines and the centre circle. How you would have known if a foul was committed inside or outside the box would have been anyone’s guess.

After nearly sixty minutes, I nearly had my way, when the referee took the players off “To consider the position” and then much to everyone’s surprise, came back to finish the game.

However, the highlight must have been the Leicester City fans, who had travelled all that way, in the cold and kept up a constant refrain of loud, musical and frequently witty songs. This enthusiastic and good humoured choir kept up the volume, even when they were losing, with such improvisations as:

“You only win when it’s snowing” and “we’re going home in a tractor” (both to the tune of “You only sing when you’re winning”)
“Let’s do the snowman” (whatever that is)
“Call it off; call it off; call it off” and “where’s the pitch, where’s the pitch, where’s the pitch”; (sung to “Here we go; Here we go; Here we go)

I don’t know when they find the time to do the choir practice.

We went back to Hazel’s mum and were met by Sara and Anthony. They had risked life and limb in driving to join us in the best fish and chips that we have had for years (i.e. they had fish in it).

I hope that the Leicester City fans had a good journey home. They deserved it. They made the atmosphere special. If it is not snowing on Boxing Day, please could they come back again.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/9283579.stm