Wembley Experiences

I was very proud to attend the Challenge Cup Final on Saturday when I was part of a commentary team with my long time friend Adrian Jackson for Radio General, Warrington Hospital Radio.

In addition to being able to relay the game back to those in the hospital, it was a good day for extending contacts and catching up with people not seen in a while.

It was also my first visit to Wembley since 1994 when a fleet-footed Jonathan Davies was the scourge of the Australians and he raced away to score the decisive try of an 8-4 GB win in that years Ashes series. (Remember when we used to have those... I feel a future blog coming on!)

I was impressed with the new stadium. The home of English football is an excellent stadium, rising from the industrial North London sprawl to dominate the landscape in a way I'd liken to those scenes of the big starship (we built this city... not that one!) hovering above Johannesburg on the acclaimed Sci-Fi film District 9.

Virtually as soon as you hit the end of the M1 the massive arch is visible and Warrington fans were certainly doing the "March to the arch" to coin a saying often used by Adrian.

Once parked up we found our way to the media entrance and were booked in by a couple of helpful people from the RFL and then referred across to stadium security who checked our bags in similar fashion to what you now find in airports. To continue the tenuous holiday links they also stuck luggage tags to our bags, (if I can get a photo I'll put it online to show everyone).

We then found our way to the media area. There are two working rooms, a central room where food and drink was available and two separate banks of media seats. and a more central bank of radio commentary positions. The views from the seats were awesome, unobstructed and despite it being a good couple of hours before kick-off I was already getting goosebumps at the sheer scale of the stadium.

I kept thinking that this stadium has more seats than Leigh has people!

The game passed quickly with Warrington easy winners in the end by a comprehensive 30-6 scoreline.

Knowing that the area was something of a bottleneck, we didn't leave the stadium immediately and after a long drive back I was eventually reunited with my car back at the hospital at 11pm after leaving it at 7am. It was a truly amazing day, although I was still in shock at being charged £30 for parking the car. It's certainly a payday for the stadium, there were two other "bargains" I spotted - pie and a pint - £8.30 and Fish and Chips - £7.00!