Boxing
Day in the UK started as way of giving gratuities or “Christmas-boxes” of money
and/or food to servants after Christmas and giving them the day off. That’s
close enough an explanation I think for what has now become a bank holiday,
where you can find shopping deals that rival the USA’s Black Friday. It’s basically a day
off now and a reason to party. It’s also a big sporting event day in the UK. Many
of the football teams, from the top tiers down have matches on the 26th
of December. We tried to get
tickets this year to our host’s favorite team, Everton. They were playing Chelsea at
Everton’s home pitch in Liverpool. To see a game at that level of play in
person, with spirited fans all around us would have been quite the experience.
Sadly, though we were able to get tickets, they were all singles and our little
group would have been scattered around the stadium, so we opted out and instead
we went with the next best thing….THE
GREEN ARMY!
THE DABBERS
Nantwich
Town has their very own football team called the Dabbers. They are a
semi-professional squad and currently a member of the EVO-STIK Premier Division
and colloquially known as the Green Army because of the color of their home
kits. After drinking a few pints at the Vine (of course), we marched down to Weaver Stadium on a raw cold afternoon, to join 337 other
hearty souls to watch the match. It was fun to attend and though the
level of play is definitely a number of tiers lower than the Premier Leagues,
we watched a football match at “the grass roots” level, according to our
favorite in-law Colin. Those in attendance were spirited in their cheering and
we heard some vociferous curses. “F***ng cabbages,” was somewhat confusing,
perhaps referring to Nantwich FC’s colors, but we giggled to ourselves each
time the deep gutted harangue was launched into the air and we felt like this
was no tourist outing, but a great way to spend Boxing Day . Being immersed in
the local culture is what every cabbage traveler should seek. Perhaps next time we'll see a goal. The match ended nil to nil.
The best part was the price. General admission was 10 pounds, but as old cabbages we got in for 7!
You can read about the match report here:
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