Day 2 - Football comes home and Elvis has left the building

We woke up around 8.30 after a good sleep; wandered into town for breakfast at Annette's and to buy supplies of sports drinks. Then it was back to Pete's house, where we sat in the sun until Graham, Brian, John, Klaus and Nigel arrived.

The warm-up sporting event was the South Africa v Lions 2nd test which, agonisingly, the Lions lost with the last kick of the ball. Gouging is bad by the way, except in the right circumstances.

Then, the big game. Pete's team was ready and waiting when we arrived at the sports hall. It was clearly a younger, fitter team, assembled with one purpose - to win the trophy back for Wales.

It was a quiet and focused Casuals dressing room, some players geeing up their comrades while others prepared within their own private zones. But we were ready.

The home team started brightly, with the Casuals struggling to impose their style of play and Aber looking the most likely to score first. And score they did. Powering from the back, Greg cut inside and lashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner. Aber continued to dominate for most of the first half, with some excellent interplay from defence causing problems for the Casuals midfield. The defence, however, held fast.

Then, with barely two minutes to go, Graham spotted a Melv v Woolley mismatch and played a measured ball over the top. Simpson duly delivered a clinical finish to take the game to half time all square.

With the sun beating down mercilessly, the Casuals regrouped at half time and came out determined to impose their own style of play. The second half was more evenly matched, but still it was Aber who drew first blood. Graham, who had been faultless, had a Petr Cech moment and spilled a corner to Elliot, who couldn't believe his luck as he slid the ball home for a 2-1 lead.

The Casuals pressed for an equaliser, and it came in the shape of an Alan Dovey strike that would grace any game. Collecting the ball with his back to goal, Alan spun and hit a beauty that goalkeeper Mark Tovey could only admire. 2-2. There were half chances at either end, but no more goals by the time referee Nigel brought the game to an end.

Then it was all down to penalties - the ultimate test of nerve. Woolley set the trend with a poor attempt, easily saved by Graham. Melvin, Ian and Brian all missed, as did all but one of the home team. So at 4-5 Alan had to score to keep Casuals' hopes alive. Score he did, taking the contest into sudden death.

A brilliant save from Graham, truly earning the Petr Cech mantle, saw the hopes and dreams of three nations rest upon Captain Courageous, Simon Jobling. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Jobbo calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner to send one half of Abergavenny into raptures while the other half looked for a scapegoat.

Football came home.

After the match, and a detour to the local cricket club, both teams enjoyed Sharon's legendary hospitality and a few beers at Chateau Woolley, where we accepted the trophy from a clearly shaken Peter.

There followed a trip to the Kings Arms that developed into an epic Karaoke session led by - who else - The Welsh Mouth (TM).

Unbelievably, Elvis Presley happened to be in the bar and he treated us to an impromptu greatest hits performance, culminating in a moving performance of 'In the Ghetto'. Even more unbelievably, he was later joined by a second Elvis for 'Return to Sender', although if truth be told it was probably one classic too far.

There was one other, special moment, that none of us who were there will ever forget. Elvis left the building, but was brought back by popular demand for one last song: a mesmerising 'I Just Can't Help Believing'. Even more special, he then morphed into Meatloaf for an inspired 'Two out of Three Ain't Bad'.

One of the all-time Casuals nights came to an end and, unable to get into Abergavenny's only nightclub, we retired to Pete's for a nightcap, and for a hard core few, a final hot tub session, under a crescent moon and a starlit sky...

Chiswick Casuals on tour. Day 1 - arrival

Forget the FA Cup or Champions League finals. The big event in the football calendar is the annual Chiswick Casuals trip down to Abergavenny to take on the Valleys' finest.   This is the story of this year's tour...

With the sun beating down and the M4 ahead of us, it was an optimistic Jobbo, Soapy and me who spearheaded this year's advance party on Friday afternoon. A couple of ibuprofen tablets for the road, a 'Music for Middle Aged Men' playlist courtesy of Jobbo, and off we set. An 80's A&R man's dream, that boy - a random selection included AHA, Simple Minds, Phil Collins, Anastacia... you get the picture.  

Sadly, when his iPod ran out of power his adaptor wouldn't fit mine, so we had to rely on Radio 2, which incidentally is about 20 years more up to date that Jobbo, for the rest of the journey.
Predictably, if a little stereotypically, it started raining as soon as we crossed the Severn bridge, but thankfully the rain didn't last long and the sun was soon out again.

When we arrived in Abergavenny, we went straight to Pete's house, where Alan and Ian had already arrived. There began an unseemly rush for the comfortable bedding, which left us all relatively happy with our lot.

We walked into town for beers, and Soapy made an early bid for one-liner of the tour.  While enjoying a hotdog at the pub, I had a little ketchup around my mouth.  Soapy: "Bloody hell, Melv. You look like you've just given a blowjob to some roadkill."

After a short stop in another bar we we went for a curry, and were in the restaurant when Pete arrived.  We all finished up and moved on to Wetherspoons.

Now one of the themes of the weekend - perhaps inspired by this very blog - was positivity. Soapy in particular is prone to morphing into Victor Meldrew very easily.  We tried to put a fine system in place but to be honest it didn't work.  By the time we reached Wetherspoons who had run out of ice for Soapy's gin and tonic, he had reverted to type: "That's the problem with the world - it's all gone to shit".

Back to Pete's for some hot tub action followed by the blissful sleep of the righteous.