Since Simber's was away stocking up on Habana cigars, this one was watched at a neutral venue i.e. Tone's. This was agreed contractually with Jo on Saturday 20th May 2006 with some hard bargaining & plenty of Strongbow.
Dave, Phil, Ted and Chap meet up by the Floozy in the Jacuzzi at 12.00pm and consumed a quick beer before catching the 126 to Tone's. Here we enjoyed a rather tasty BBQ provided by our hosts on the patio in glorious sunny weather whilst drinking plenty of ice-cold beer before the match commenced.
The game, although starting well with England taking an early lead, petered out into a rather damp squib and ended up at 1-0. The usual excuses came out from our 'Klingon forheaded' manager about the heat, etc affecting out performance - but hey a win is a win as they say. A few more beers were sunk whilst sitting on the patio watching Phil doing his gardening chores by watering Tone's garden before heading off to town.
Next port of call was the usual watering hole the Old Royal - here the Chaps supped a few more ales whilst contemplating England's performance (or lack of it!) and also watching the Swedes struggle to a draw with T & T in the other group game. With no one else arriving for the evening session we decided to move on from a rather quiet OR.
The Actress & bishop was the next venue - here the Chaps managed to secure some outside seating on the decking. A fine vantage point to view the sights whilst steadily drinking the night away. Tone eventually bailed out at 9.00pm and Ted left for the 10.00pm train to Derby (he later sent a text to say he'd fallen asleep and had to get the bus back from Nottingham!!). Phil, Dave and Chap had a few more beers before deciding on the need for sustenance around midnight. We tried the Milan Indian, but this was closing up (daft bloody time) so we had to rely on old faithful and head to Shah's to finish of a great day for food and beer, etc but an average day for football (surely there was better to come!!)
With Simber's back stocked up with cigars, a different venue for the second round match was chosen, This being the Electric Cinema on Station Street.
The Chaps - Dave, Phil, Nige, Tone, Simbers & Chap met up at the Old Fox on Hurst Street for a couple of pre-match beers on a nice warm sunny Sunday afternoon. At 3.30pm it was time to go to the Electric to take our places in the comfy sofas and order some beer ready for the start of the match. Again the footy provided sparse entertainment with the score being 0-0 at half time prompting the need for more beer and some olives to nibble on in the break. The second half wasn't much better with Beckham scoring the only goal of a dull match, again allowing the 'manager of the receding hairline' to come up with the usual excuses. On the plus side the Electric Cinema provides a good place to watch live footy at and we decided this should be the venue for the quarter final.
After the match we took a trip down memory lane and had a couple of beers in the Brightside (formerly Sam Wellers) whilst having a game or two of pool. It was then off to another occasional haunt of the Chaps - the Shakespeare (Temple St.), strange pub but good beer, Spitfire on draught can't be bad, but we did encounter a rather drunk dodgy Food processing software guy from the US!.
As it was Sunday and with work the following day Simbers & Chap bailed out around 8.00pm leaving the rest of the chaps to head to the OR.
Surely the quarter final would finally see us perform!!
The quarter final pitted 'Tubby Phil' Scolari against 'Knob headious' Eriksson for what had to be third time lucky.
However the day started off badly with the Electric Cinema calling to say that the projector bulb had blown and they did not carry a spare. As a contingency plan the Chaps, Dave, Rog, Simbers, Nige, Chap, Trevor & co decided to meet & watch the game in the Old Fox which as it turns out was not too bad with plenty of ice-cold ale being supped.
The game did not live up to expectations and ended up 0-0 aet - it was not helped by some dodgy referring decisions and 'Gay boy' Ronaldo assisting in getting Rooney sent off. It went in to penalties and there was only ever going to be one result, England losing again on penalties 3-1 and even the 1 was scored by a 'German'!!. Unfortunately this was an all to predictable end to the England's world cup campaign.
After that more beer was needed to numb the pain so we stayed in the Old Fox until Steve arrived (minus camera for a change) and then headed up to Broad Street and Scruffy Duffy's' for some live music. However, although Simber's got in with shorts on, they would not let Rog in with his (must have been the style - camping shorts & Jesus sandals!!) so we abandoned that option and found solstice in the Tap and Spile for the rest of the evening.
The Chaps stayed here in rather a subdued mood before moving on to other places with Rog and Chap venturing down to Shah's for a curry to end a somewhat disappointing day.
Simber's had arranged this well in advance in the hope that England would be in the final. However, events conspired against us so it left us with the Italians and French competing for the trophy.
An excellent afternoon and evening was had by all with our hosts Di & Simber's providing fine food, ale & wine. The entertainment was provided partly by the footy but mainly by Phil who lovingly created 'Philistines' monster and then introduced us all to his harem.
The last of the stragglers departed around 11.15pm after a good day out - Di was exhausted by her efforts of the day finally crashing out on the sofa.
Oh and as a final note the I-ties one the World cup on penalties - they had probably been the most consistent team.