Exhilarating Experience at Fulham

I was happy to receive the invitation to watch Fulham vs Newcastle at their stadium ‘Craven Cottage’ which ‘has been the home of Fulham Football Club since 1896.’ We travelled by train to Putney Bridge. We walk for about 15 min to reach the Craven Cottage.  The walk is by the Thames riverside and through a big park – Bishop Park.

You may wonder why the ground is known as Craven Cottage. Well, this naming date back to the 18th century. Back then, William Craven, the 6th Baron Craven, came up with the idea of building a cottage on this land. Around the building were woods that served as hunting areas. (Google tells me this info). See the big trees. A few must have been more than 75 years old.

Police were present in large numbers; it almost appeared as if they were standing in the middle of the road to welcome us! But their trained eyes must have been looking for some ‘familiar faces.’ I was not one of them!

Supporters wear their team’s T Shirt. Players have three sets of T shirts. One which the host team wears, the other which they don when they play in another Club’s stadium to ensure that the colours do not match with the host team, and one set for training. At the entrance you see white T shirts with black stripes. Those are Newcastle guys.

Johnny Haynes is widely regarded as Fulham’s greatest ever player, remaining loyal there for twenty years. He was one of many signatories of a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing “the policy of apartheid” in international sport.

Fulham Football Club is London’s oldest professional football club, having been established in 1879. One ‘Cottager’ – that means a Fulham fan – told me that the Stadium was built in 1904.

They have modified or modernised the stadium, but many things are carried from the past. The steps of their stairs are wooden and date back to 1904, they told me. Here in London everything has a history which is also carefully preserved.

The only persons who were not drinking beer were the children who are not allowed to drink it anyway. I did not see a board saying ‘You cannot enter the stadium without gulping a pint of beer’ but all footballers somehow seem to read this invisible rule and comply with it! The displayed rule is that ‘You can’t carry alcohol drink in the stadium.’ And that too is obeyed just like the invisible rule.

Fulham was playing with Newcastle; there is a separate stand for Fulham opponents. Fulham supporters – ‘the Cottagers’ – told me that Newcastle guys were rowdy. I wonder what Newcastle guys think of the Cottagers. I know it; I know it instinctively, it’s ‘rowdy!’

The entire atmosphere, music and announcements reminds this Mumbaikar of the IPL Matches at Wankhede Stadium. Loud music before start of the game, Loud clear announcements but very few here.

Except that I did not see Cheerleaders anywhere. Only one football team has cheerleaders. Here is the interesting information – ‘As a sport, cheerleading is offered as a PE extracurricular in a number of UK based schools.’ Any takers in India for the school curriculum?

Cottagers told me that Hugh Grant was also a ‘Cottager’ or in other words, a Fulham supporter. He is a season ticket holder meaning he had a reserved seat for all matches. And that it was just behind where I was seated. But he did not attend the match which Fulham won 3-1.

With every opportunity like attending a Fulham match, comes a disappointment like missing Hugh Grant. Life is like that!

Vivek S Patwardhan

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others/ All work copyrighted.