wickesy
<font color=royalblue>Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love y
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2006
- Messages
- 3,797
Cast
Me David 36 Dolphins Fan
Dad Ray 60 American Football Apprentice
81,174 other fans
Back in February this year I was watching a recording of the Superbowl and as I flicked through the adverts something caught my eye NFL London 2007. I rewound and discovered that the Miami Dolphins were to play the New York Giants at Wembley in the first regular season game to be played outside North America. I immediately registered my interest for tickets and in May I was lucky enough to receive a code for the first round of ticket sales. The following month when the tickets went on sale Dad was at home refreshing the Ticketmaster website like mad and we managed to get tickets at the corner of the endzone.
The day of the game arrived and at 12:30, anticipating that it might be quite cold in the stadium, I layered up with a T-shirt, my long sleeved Contemporary Resort shirt and my replica #23 Ronnie Brown Miami Dolphins shirt topped off with my London Monarchs World Bowl 91 Champions jacket. We left home at 1:00 pm and as we were sitting at the station I heard two blokes talking about trying to get on the giant screens at Wembley, then as we got on the train we saw another fan sitting across the aisle from us clutching his ticket 5 of us going already and we had barely left home!
We got to London Bridge and made our way down to the Jubilee line where a train was standing waiting for us so we jumped on and after an uneventful journey we were at Wembley Park station by 2:25.
We made our way out of the station and as the weather wasnt to great we walked quickly up Wembley Way pausing just long enough to take a quick picture of the banners at the Stadium.
We walked round to entrance C which had a nice large undercover area out of the rain and waited for the gates to open at 3:00. As we were waiting we saw quite a few Dolphins and Giants shirts but also quite a few shirts from other NFL teams. Once the turnstiles opened we made our way inside and I bought a program before walking round to the merchandise stands. I purchased a polo shirt, fridge magnet and spinner keyring after which we went to one of the bars where I had a pint of Carlsberg and Dad had a large Coke.
We took our drinks round to our seats and although I had been a bit nervous of what sort of view we would have I neednt have worried because the view was:
We were also just one row forward of the exit and right on the aisle, which was ideal for nipping out ahead of the masses. As we were waiting for kickoff the players came out and warmed up, with the Dolphins warming up at our end.
Around 4:30 the pre-game entertainment started, which was a routine from the cheerleaders
Followed by a two song set from The Feeling accompanied by giant football shirts
The American National Anthem was then performed by Jocelyn Brown, with our National Anthem, which had been due to be performed by Russell Watson, being performed by Paul Potts (winner of ITVs Britains Got Talent) instead.
The Giants kicked off and the Dolphins first possession ended in them missing what would turn out to be a crucial field goal. By half-time they were 13-0 down, which unfortunately is nothing unusual this season.
Dad and I went out to get some food but as it became obvious that we were not going to get served before the second half I went back to my seat leaving Dad in the queue.
As the teams were just about to restart I saw the officials suddenly whistle to stop play and saw people running onto the pitch. I thought maybe it was a pitch invasion, which is exactly what it was a streaker! He made his way to midfield and did a few press ups before he was gang tackled from all directions by the stewards and led off.
The second half got underway and mid way through the third quarter we were getting soaked from the rain pouring into the stadium. The Dolphins made somewhat of a comeback, scoring a field goal and, a couple of minutes from the end, a touchdown
It was all too little, too late and the final score was 13-10 leaving the Dolphins winless after 8 games. We made our way back to the station and, after being held outside for a minute or so, we were straight onto a train to take us back to London Bridge.
And this is where the fun began we had just missed a train by 5 minutes and the next one was not for another hour. We do have another station near us that we could use but, due to engineering works we had to get a train to East Croydon and then come back as trains were only stopping in one direction. We decided that was better than hanging around so we raced round to the platform from which the East Croydon train was leaving making it with a couple of minutes to spare. The train took longer than it should have done to get to East Croydon and I began thinking maybe we had made a mistake. This was confirmed when we got to East Croydon and found that trains coming back up the line were delayed due to a signal problem at Purley.
After 10 minutes there was no sign of a train, nor any indication of when our train was likely to come in so we decided to go out and get a bus. As we were walking down to the bus stop we saw our bus pulling away but luckily we only had to wait 10 minutes for the next one. The final irritation of the night was when the bus driver failed to stop at our stop, even though it was a compulsory stop and we had already made our way downstairs. We finally got home around 10 minutes later than we would have been had we waited for the original train at London Bridge.
All things considered it was a great day out, albeit not a classic game and if, as expected, there is another game next year I will definitely consider buying tickets once the fans of the two teams playing have had their chance.
Me David 36 Dolphins Fan
Dad Ray 60 American Football Apprentice
81,174 other fans
Back in February this year I was watching a recording of the Superbowl and as I flicked through the adverts something caught my eye NFL London 2007. I rewound and discovered that the Miami Dolphins were to play the New York Giants at Wembley in the first regular season game to be played outside North America. I immediately registered my interest for tickets and in May I was lucky enough to receive a code for the first round of ticket sales. The following month when the tickets went on sale Dad was at home refreshing the Ticketmaster website like mad and we managed to get tickets at the corner of the endzone.
The day of the game arrived and at 12:30, anticipating that it might be quite cold in the stadium, I layered up with a T-shirt, my long sleeved Contemporary Resort shirt and my replica #23 Ronnie Brown Miami Dolphins shirt topped off with my London Monarchs World Bowl 91 Champions jacket. We left home at 1:00 pm and as we were sitting at the station I heard two blokes talking about trying to get on the giant screens at Wembley, then as we got on the train we saw another fan sitting across the aisle from us clutching his ticket 5 of us going already and we had barely left home!
We got to London Bridge and made our way down to the Jubilee line where a train was standing waiting for us so we jumped on and after an uneventful journey we were at Wembley Park station by 2:25.
We made our way out of the station and as the weather wasnt to great we walked quickly up Wembley Way pausing just long enough to take a quick picture of the banners at the Stadium.
We walked round to entrance C which had a nice large undercover area out of the rain and waited for the gates to open at 3:00. As we were waiting we saw quite a few Dolphins and Giants shirts but also quite a few shirts from other NFL teams. Once the turnstiles opened we made our way inside and I bought a program before walking round to the merchandise stands. I purchased a polo shirt, fridge magnet and spinner keyring after which we went to one of the bars where I had a pint of Carlsberg and Dad had a large Coke.
We took our drinks round to our seats and although I had been a bit nervous of what sort of view we would have I neednt have worried because the view was:
We were also just one row forward of the exit and right on the aisle, which was ideal for nipping out ahead of the masses. As we were waiting for kickoff the players came out and warmed up, with the Dolphins warming up at our end.
Around 4:30 the pre-game entertainment started, which was a routine from the cheerleaders
Followed by a two song set from The Feeling accompanied by giant football shirts
The American National Anthem was then performed by Jocelyn Brown, with our National Anthem, which had been due to be performed by Russell Watson, being performed by Paul Potts (winner of ITVs Britains Got Talent) instead.
The Giants kicked off and the Dolphins first possession ended in them missing what would turn out to be a crucial field goal. By half-time they were 13-0 down, which unfortunately is nothing unusual this season.
Dad and I went out to get some food but as it became obvious that we were not going to get served before the second half I went back to my seat leaving Dad in the queue.
As the teams were just about to restart I saw the officials suddenly whistle to stop play and saw people running onto the pitch. I thought maybe it was a pitch invasion, which is exactly what it was a streaker! He made his way to midfield and did a few press ups before he was gang tackled from all directions by the stewards and led off.
The second half got underway and mid way through the third quarter we were getting soaked from the rain pouring into the stadium. The Dolphins made somewhat of a comeback, scoring a field goal and, a couple of minutes from the end, a touchdown
It was all too little, too late and the final score was 13-10 leaving the Dolphins winless after 8 games. We made our way back to the station and, after being held outside for a minute or so, we were straight onto a train to take us back to London Bridge.
And this is where the fun began we had just missed a train by 5 minutes and the next one was not for another hour. We do have another station near us that we could use but, due to engineering works we had to get a train to East Croydon and then come back as trains were only stopping in one direction. We decided that was better than hanging around so we raced round to the platform from which the East Croydon train was leaving making it with a couple of minutes to spare. The train took longer than it should have done to get to East Croydon and I began thinking maybe we had made a mistake. This was confirmed when we got to East Croydon and found that trains coming back up the line were delayed due to a signal problem at Purley.
After 10 minutes there was no sign of a train, nor any indication of when our train was likely to come in so we decided to go out and get a bus. As we were walking down to the bus stop we saw our bus pulling away but luckily we only had to wait 10 minutes for the next one. The final irritation of the night was when the bus driver failed to stop at our stop, even though it was a compulsory stop and we had already made our way downstairs. We finally got home around 10 minutes later than we would have been had we waited for the original train at London Bridge.
All things considered it was a great day out, albeit not a classic game and if, as expected, there is another game next year I will definitely consider buying tickets once the fans of the two teams playing have had their chance.
im a little dissapointed that you don't seem to have any pictures of the streaker 
