Hereford Bar T'at

With Simon Davey having quit Darlo for Hereford in what could be termed controversial circumstances this summer, which meant that we had to make time in our holiday week to Amsterdam to listen to the Radio Tees phone-in on the subject, I decided to boycott the Hereford game in a gesture of solidarity. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. So here's the trip from my brother's point of view...

Phil and Nigel let the side down by drinking lager

Not seeming like five minutes since we were last making this trip the London Millers are off to Hereford again although this time it’s a lot smaller London Millers turn out than last season’s end of season hat fest.

I’ve taken the local train from Cheltenham up to Worcester where I join the train carrying the London contingent which this time consists only of Jenny and Chris T, who has managed to set his alarm and make it this time. Chris has brought with him the sausages on sticks that he’d meant to bring the last time although I am assured it is not the same sausages but a fresh lot. We tuck into these together with some of Darlington’s finest Pork pie and cheese and onion on sticks as the train slowly wends its way through the Malverns. Just three hours and twenty minutes after Jenny and Chris left London we arrive at Hereford; Chris says the trip by Eurostar to Holland to watch Yorkshire play cricket a few weeks ago was quicker. On our way to the Barrels we notice that the main street is cordoned off and forensic investigators are present. We suspect that someone has borrowed the crossbow from the town hall and killed a Welsh person they’ve spotted in the street as apparently local bylaws still allow you to do. We comment that no one suggested repealing this law when the coalition government were recently looking for laws to get rid of. Outside the Barrels Jenny meets up with her friend, Anne, who lives just outside Worcester. Anne is meeting us for drinks but we fail to persuade her to come to the match, too. The Barrels have their annual charity beer festival after last week’s match when the Fat Cat had a beer festival on and also last season’s trip to Burton we take this as a lucky omen in many ways. The first round of drinks is from the Wye Valley selection on the main bar before we head out in to the rear courtyard to sit in the sun and peruse the festival beer list. Only fifty beers plus ciders to choose from. The closest to an omen beer we can find is Cotleigh Blue Jay in honour of Jason Taylor. A wasp decides it is going to end its days by drowning itself in my beer.

Dave sits quietly for The Librarians

We are convince by the local rotary club to by raffle tickets for their duck race. The prize is £1000 but we are convinced that if we get a phone call next week telling us we’ve won a grand we will just put the phone down assuming it’s one of the usual spam phone calls. The festival programme has a quiz in it: 25 music questions, all with a drink theme. We do better on the alcohol related ones than the teetotal selection. What that says about us – answers on a post card, please. Slowly we are joined by a few more of the London Millers. Martin Burton and his son, Alfie, have come across from Derby, Dave Bates has travelled up from North Devon, Nigel and Phil have come down from Sheffield and Dave Finnis is still in the country on business from Australia. One of the down sides of the beer festival is they have live entertainment. The band for the lunch time session is a folk duo called The Librarians and Chris reckons we should all go, ‘Shush, be quiet,’ when they come on. However when they do appear on stage we are more intrigued in working out whether the female fiddler is pregnant or has a baby tightly bound to her bosom. It turns out to be the latter. The plus side of the beer festival is it is the only occasion when the Barrels does food so we are able to fill our faces with burgers before we leave for the match.

CSI Hereford are still investigating in the market place but Anne’s local knowledge means we just have to take a minor detour via a back alley to the ground. The teams are just coming out as we arrive with the only change for the Milers being Paul Warne starting up front instead of the injured Elliot. However for me seeing the Millers for the first time this season there are quite a few new faces but still no excuse for me mixing up Nicky Law and Danny Harrison which I do later in the match. The first half is fairly uneventful with a much better Rotherham performance than last season as the players actually look interested. Then right on half time the Hereford defence fall asleep when Rotherham take a quick throw in and Warney gets his head on to a le Fondre cross. On Chris’s advice a sample a Hereford beef and onion pie at half time which was pretty good and leads to a suspicion to where the bull that used to be paraded around Edgar Street before games has ended up.

Hereford come out more strongly in the second half but seem unable to score. Even Stuart Fleetwood, who caused many problems for Rotherham when he played for Forest Green, is off form. The blowing really starts when Hereford start to pile the pressure on in the last five minutes and then the ref seems to find added time from nowhere and with Don having to pull off two fine saves we think the referee is going to keep playing until Herford equalise. He does finally blow the whistle and we can all celebrate the fist win at Hereford for as long as any of us can remember.

Unfortunately there just isn’t time to make it back to the Barrels after the game so Jenny, Chris, Nigel, Phil and myself make the usual stop at the Wetherspoons near the station before we get the train. The demise of Sky Sports News from Freeview means the pub are only showing BBC news so we are reliant on Phil’s phone to bring us all the rest of the scores. Beers quickly downed we head back to the station where fortunately our train is waiting on the first platform. Phil and Nigel will have an hour and a half wait in Birmingham so we try and give them directions to the Wellington as it’s a much better place to kill time than the pub on New Street station.

Jenny, Chris and I get off at Worcester Foregate Street and stop off in the Tesco Express by the station so Jenny and Chris can stock up on supplies for the long journey back to London as Jenny’s previous experience indicate that their train will be an old boneshaker with no buffet (she’s right). On returning to the station we discover that my train to Cheltenham has been cancelled with a two-hour wait before the next one. The ticket clerk tells me to join the London train and change at Worcester Shrub Hill where there will be a Cheltenham connection. It turns out that the incoming train that should form the Cheltenham service is running late so is going to be terminated and turned round at Worcester Shrub Hill rather than going through to Great Malvern. So I travel up to Shrub Hill where a leave Jenny and Chris for their long, slow journey back to London. The train I’m waiting for arrives but the staff don’t let us board until it has gone down to Foregate Street to turn round before heading back down south. There’s organisation for you! In the end I’m only five minutes late arriving in Cheltenham so just time to pick up a Chinese takeaway before catching the bus home. So even First Great Western can’t ruin a great day that had good weather, a beer festival and three points.