Out of Africa... and back to Blyth
26 June 2007
Guilty about the innocents.
That’s how Blyth Spartans’ striker Robert Dale felt during his trip to Tanzania with Middlesex Wanderers earlier this month.
It may not be a sentiment usually linked to football but on this occasion it was entirely, if disconcertingly, appropriate.
Dale had flown out from Heathrow to Dar es Salaam with the Wanderers at the beginning of the month for a 10-day, three match, tour. The Middlesex Wanderers were formed in 1905 with the vision of establishing a touring football club to promote goodwill through the “beautiful game” to a number of countries in Europe. As standards improved in Europe the Wanderers looked further afield and toured in the Caribbean and Africa in the 60s and 70s.
More recently they have visited Vietnam, Burma and The Gambia. Players are selected from senior non-league clubs.
“The hotel we stayed at out there was amazing,” said Dale. “But I felt a bit bad about it as once you stepped out of the door there were families sleeping on the streets, no clean water and children with no shoes.
“Indeed some of us went over the road to a local shop, bought some flip-flops and bottles of water and gave them to the local youngsters.
“The poverty was extreme.”
Bringing football and hope was part of the ethos of the tour and Dale, although stunned by the country’s problems, enjoyed the football itself.
“Yes, it was great fun ” he enthused. “It was really humid though and the games were a bit difficult in that respect. Having said that in the first game against local club side Simba, of Dar es Salaam, we drew 1-1. Not a bad result as Simba have won the Tanzania Premier League 13 times – the last being in 2004.
“After that we beat their local rivals Yonga 3-0.”
The final game of the tour was the most interesting as Dale explains.
“Something went wrong – perhaps a payment not being made by a sponsor or something but, whatever, the 7.00pm kick off was delayed an hour till the situation was resolved. However our team were all on the pitch awaiting kick-off and as time went by the locals got a bit unhappy and the atmosphere turned. The lads had been giving the fans footballs and the like but as the delay continued we had to find all sorts of other things we had to give away to keep the crowd happy.”
Dale reports that the quality of some of the home players was “outstanding” and that the teams he played against would have been even stronger if the African Nations Cup Qualifiers hadn’t been taking place at the same time.
He feels he played well enough in the time he had on the pitch – which was shared equally amongst an18 man squad, especially as he was asked to drop back into a midfield position during his appearance in the final game following a colleague receiving a red card.
The opposition players may have been impressive but the Blyth man was less enamoured with the venues’ facilities and the officials.
“It was a five hour coach drive from the hotel to the first match. That was fine enough, seeing as we were not encouraged to leave the hotel for safety reasons, so we saw a bit of the country. The downside was that there were no showers for after the game so the long journey home was a little smelly to say the least!
“The other thing was the pitches – I’ll never complain about any over here again - out in Tanzania they were rock hard and uneven.
“Plus it struck me in our final game that the ref wasn’t really up to speed with the interpretation of the laws but, in fact, it was just a learning exercise for him in that part of the world. Indeed the staff with The Wanderers were helping to coach the local refs.”
Dale met many new people on his African adventure.
“The other lads in the playing squad were from the likes of Altrincham, Bishop Stortford, Sutton United, Burscough, Guiseley as well as from Scotland and Wales.
“I didn’t know much about them but several had heard of me after my scoring record in the Unibond Premier Division. Anyway we all got on well.”
Asked if he may be “wandering” again Dale said that it could be possible as three of this year’s touring squad had been selected previously.
He is now looking forward to this Tuesday’s resumption of training with the Spartans despite a slight knock from last season still bothering him a little.
“I’ve had no time, with the tour, to get a beer-belly so I hope Manager Harry Dunn will appreciate my return in reasonable shape!” he said.
The young Spartans Gosforth based player was certainly a wise choice to tour by the Middlesex Wanderers Committee.
His shirt from one match was given, with his teammates’, to kit out a local Tanzanian club. He has promised to donate the second to Blyth Spartans to display or auction.
The third he chose to give away to a local Tanzanian village lad who asked for it and who simply wanted some football kit in which to kick a ball around - and to feel part of a wider football community.
Those are things many of us take for granted.
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