Tales of an English Chiefs fan

While some of you were lucky enough to be at Peter Mokaba stadium last Saturday to watch Chiefs beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 and many watched it on TV, I had the less exciting experience of watching the game in a pub in Edinburgh, Scotland, without any sound.

It hadn’t occurred to me that Spurs’ tour of South Africa might be televised in the UK until an hour before kick off. Finding out that satellite channel ESPN was broadcasting it was infuriating as I only have the basic channels at home. I immediately rushed out to find a pub that had ESPN and would be prepared to show it.

Found one just in time but they were playing the sound to some cricket match going on in the background. No-one else seemed interested in watching what was just another insignificant pre-season warm-up game to them.

So there I was, on my own with my Chiefs jersey on and my membership card in my wallet, although sadly missing my Chiefs makarapa and vuvuzela, in storage at my parents’ house. I tried in vain to stay calm but ended up excited and frustrated in equal measure as Lehlohonolo Majoro should have scored (again and again).

The locals looked at me in confusion and I tried explaining who Chiefs were but they didn’t seem interested. Probably best that I didn’t have my vuvuzela with me then.

Without the sound, I had to imagine what the post-match analysts were saying. I could just imagine the usual excuses: “it didn’t mean as much to Spurs as it did to Chiefs”, “Spurs were tired after travelling”, “it was a meaningless friendly” and so on.

I didn’t care. After all, it’s not everyday that your team gets to play against a UEFA Champions League quarter-finalist and beat them. Of course the result means very little in the context of the season, but still, things look promising for Chiefs.

I’ve since found a friend of mine who has ESPN at home so I will be watching the final on Saturday with the sound on (the derby match isn’t being shown over here) with my Chiefs jersey and hoodie on, but still sadly without my makarapa and vuvuzela. Amakhosi, please don’t let me down. Beat Pirates on Thursday so I can watch you beat Spurs again!

It’s not often that I wish that I was in Polokwane but last Saturday, I really wished that I was.

By Marc Fletcher