Location: Hamilton Island
Weather: Clear blue skies, a light wind – a near perfect Spring day. 28c
They say bad things happen in three’s and today was certainly the case. I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say that my anticipated arrival at Townsville for 15:00hrs didn’t happen. Let’s just say missed boat, closed car rental office and wrong direction for the first hour of the journey!
What was supposed to be a relaxing drive up the coast from Airlie Beach to Townsville turned into more of a road race onboard with the Beyond TV film crew in order to make my first appointment of the new itinerary – the football match between North Queensland Fury and Brisbane Roar, two of the countries top football teams.
As we pulled into the city confines and checked into the Grand Mercure apartment there was just enough time to slip into my uniform, the blue Island Caretaker shirt, and rush downstairs to meet Brent Randall and his wife for the drive to the Dairy Farmers Stadium where the two teams would be playing.
I haven’t been to a football match for ages in the UK and I had a few butterflies in my stomach as I walked through the car park with the bright floodlights, singing fans and footie atmosphere building all them time. These Aussie fans are just as dedicated as those back home you know! The stadium doubles up as rugby league venue for the very famous Cowboys who regularly fill the 20,000 seater to capacity but the Queensland Fury are only in their first season so still building a fan-base, even still 8,000 people were here for a night’s entertainment.
One of the biggest draws the team have is the monumental signing of Robbie Fowler, an ex-England player with eight international goals to his name and a superb history in the Premiership for Liverpool amongst others. After leaving Blackburn Rovers at the end of the 2008 season Robbie and his family decided to take the very sensible step of moving out of England to enjoy the delights of this part of the world for a few years and he’s now playing as captain as his new club.
I sat with Don Matheson, the Chairman of the club, to watch the first half of the game and had a great laugh discussing the rather lacklustre Coventry City team I support back in the UK…I stick by them through thick and thin (although there’s plenty more thin I can tell you!) as I was born there much to the amusement of anyone I tell.
Awesome start to the game too, Robbie Fowler only went and scored the opening goal after ten minutes. I was up in the air high-fiving the chairman and other Fury supporters…maybe this could be the first win of the season for them? The run of good luck didn’t continue as after half an hour the Fury had Paul Kohler sent off for a second bookable offence…disaster as they were down to ten men for the remainder of the match.
The half time entertainment was massively entertaining…mainly as it involved me and ten other non-talents playing ‘Celebrity Binocular Football’ much to the amusement of the crowd. Take a pair of blacked-out safety goggles, attach a pair of plastic binoculars and attach them to your head – what can you see? Absolutely nothing for the first 20 metres.
As we all ran around like headless chickens there was the occasional kick which did something but I don’t think we managed to string two passes together all game, thankfully it only lasted for five minutes before the teams were out again.
The second half really was just a case of holding on for the Fury, constantly defending attacks from the Brisbane Roar team and it was only a matter of time before a ‘very’ lucky deflection skidded past the Fury’s keeper, Justin Passfield. 1-1.
The final whistle arrived and a dejected Fury team left the field, they were ten minutes away from their first win of the season….oh so close, but that’s sport for you.
I headed down to the changing room with the chairman and had a chance to meet some of the players including the legend himself, Robbie Fowler – who’s the most down-to-earth guy imaginable, we chatted for a while about what it’s like to be an overpaid Pom in this country and I even asked him if he’d join me next year as I row the length of the Great Barrier Reef – he said yes for a few days! We’ll see…
What a superb evening all round; a good game of football, a new town to discover and a celebrity-meeting too! Excellent.
We headed back to the hotel and an early night…I have my usual exploratory run to do in the morning!
End of day location: Townsville
Distance covered: 398kms
4 Comments
Its a nice post. I really enjoyed it. Good to know about Hamilton Island.
Ben,
I applied for the job in January. I was sore that I didn’t get it, but you are doing great. I was busy through much of July and August so only now am able to have a look at your blog: have you been to Cairns yet or is it not that exciting if you’re already in the Whitsundays? I spent seven weeks there before joining a sailboat as crew to go to the Raceweek. I’m looking forward to having some memories refreshed.
I do miss this small but wonderful town where i’ve been there for 5 days and enjoyed alot. It is full of super entertainment accommodations with colorful painting on the walls, they have nice, clean beach Macdonald’s cabin (looks like to me) on the street. A quiet night with the twilight on the sky AND from the harbor parked many sailboat or yacht. Love this town, so does the Aquarium with sea-stars and whale’s bone in museum. What a wonderful 5 days there!
Ben you really have an amazing job, I think many people would love to do what you do, you really get to do a lot of traveling, and to see and do things as well. Thanks for a great post.