In the early part of 1966 our teaching staff had the great idea. We, a bunch of pubescent teenagers needed a cultural visit to the great flat lands of The Netherlands.
Great joy was felt among the pupils and names were duly put forward and thirty of us were lucky enough to be chosen on our merits, or not as the case maybe. But the thought of going abroad, unlike most of our parents (not counting the war) was a great thought.
The itinerary was put together by our three masters who would be our chaperones. The geography teacher . The Music teacher and the English master (never got why the last two), but hasten to add that none of them had a clue about football.
The Journey started on the 29th of July from Doncaster, Yorkshire, upon a steam hauled train to London. Train to Dover and ferry to Ostend. We spent our first night in Bruges.
Now those of us who were into football, had queried the dates with the aforementioned staff. But the answer was sorry all booked cannot change the dates now.
So day two of our travails saw us visiting Ghent, to view the architecture and the famous pottery works. After lunch, at great expense to our parents, they had booked us to see, the Madurodam model village in Rotterdam. Starting at 14:30 until 17:00.
So on arrival and past the turnstiles, every one ran to all quarters of the model village, looking for the best spot to settle down with some lads transistor radio, who we had all paid out to, for the batteries necessary to listen. A decent shelter was found and about 25 of us crowded round to listen to said match.
Now 17:00 came and went and by this time the cheers of all the gathered bunch had brought in a few interlopers. Mainly Dutch people and mostly men, who were also being starved of their football fix. And a couple of the teachers joined in.
The Dutch coach driver was not that enamoured with us as we filed back singing to the top of our voices some one hour late.
Hasten to say I have seen more of the Madouradam model village on Youtube than I did that day.
Nigel Dowe
Memory added on August 1, 2016
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