Hull City AFC v. Tottenham Hotspur [Premiership] 1-2
I have to admit, I really didn't feel like the 400-mile round trip to Hull at 9am on Sunday morning. I'd gotten a little drunk at Watford the day before, was still recovering from a slight cold, and having not had a lie-in all week, I was pretty knackered.
But I'd already gotten myself a ticket for the game. And more than that - I was on a mission to complete the 92, wasn't I? I couldn't not go! Besides which, this is one of the furthest journeys left to do (according to Google Maps only Sunderland's Stadium of Light will be a longer trip of the grounds remaining), so I may as well bite the bullet and get it over with.
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| 1st View of The KC from the Park. |
The stadium was finished in 2002 at a cost of £44m, and was built and funded by...Hull City Council. Yes, that's right - the council paid for it in order to provide a top quality sports venue for the football and rugby league teams of the City, free of private ownership so that it is always held in trust for the people of the city.
Hull may not be unique in having a council that helps its community's football club, but it might amaze many football fans up and down the country to hear a council nearly 100% funding an expensive, state-of-the-art new stadium in such a manner, especially as at the time they were a mid-table side in the basement Third Division of English League Football.
But it happened. And the fact that Hull City now play in said state-of-the-art stadium in the Premier League says a lot about what the backing of a council can achieve. But how the hell did the council afford to stick £40m aside to allow Hull to have such a landmark stadium?
The short answer is through funds from selling off some of their stake in Kingston Communications - the local telecoms & IT services provider.
Hull City Council historically owned & operated the telephone systems within the city and uniquely, managed to remain independent when what became British Telecom took over all the other private or municipally owned telephone services in Britain at the early years of the 20th Century.
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| One of Hull's Distinctive Cream Telephone Boxes. Interesting. |
As such, Hull was the only place in the UK not served by BT and the council made an absolute bloody fortune out of the monopoly that KC had in the provision of communications in the city.
I'm sorry if you are now dreadfully bored and wondering why this blog about visiting football grounds is talking about the 1899 Telegraph Act, but as this quirk of UK telecommunications history helped build the stadium that this entry is all about you can bloody well just sit there and read it, ok?
Plus - because of all this Hull have their own unique cream-coloured Telephone Boxes. As in the picture here. See, I told you it was interesting.
I had a little bit of time to spare so decided I'd take a walk to Hull Old Town to grab a bite and see what this important former trading hub and designated 2017 UK City of Culture has to offer.
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| A nice big Civic Building in Hull's Old Town. And Queen Victoria too. |
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| Hull Old Town: Looking down Posterngate to Holy Trinity |
Sadly - it being Sunday afternoon, not much was opened and the streets were a little deserted.
But it was certainly more than I expected to find here - and I genuinely think that Hull could make a pretty decent base to explore the East Yorkshire countryside and coastline around here.
There were certainly a lovely-looking bunch of pubs I would have loved to jump into to get out of the crisp winter's afternoon chill - but sadly, my time was pressing, plus I had another 4hours in the car home yet to come, so drinking ales wasn't really on the cards this time.
What was on the cards though, was a visit to a traditional Yorkshire Chippy for my Sunday afternoon sustenance as I wondered back to the stadium from the City Centre.
Upon entering the Chippy in question, familiar territory in itself, I spied a couple of very unfamiliar looking items in the greasy display cabinet of deep-fried delights.
One was a battered, dense-looking rectangle. It's stable-mate was a perfect, thickly-set circle of crisp golden batter.
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| Fish Pattie & Chips: A Hull Favourite! |
"Fish Pâté." she replied, clearly perplexed as to why someone would not recognise a Fish Pâté when they saw one.
"Fish Pâté? What's in that then?"
She was really confused now. She'd told me the ignorant Southerner who should have known better it was a Fish Pâté, and now I didn't know what one even was even when it was pointed out to me? Thankfully, she humoured me.
"It's fish mashed up with potato."
"Oh ok." I was clearly going to try this local fishy delicacy (basically an oblong fishcake in batter rather than breadcrumbs). But first, I had to at least ask..."What's the circular one behind it?"
"Pâté."
"Pâté?! Actual Pâté?" Hold on I thought - a perfect thick dollop of deep-fried, battered Pâté? I thought the battered bacon in Watford was decadent yesterday - but this was something else. "What's actually in it?"
She by now should have been exasperated by my ignorance, but was amazingly patient, and explained - "Fish Pâté - Fish and Potato. Pâté - just Potato!"
I glanced up at the menu. Ahh, she was saying "Pattie", Not Pâté. I felt a fool, having completely failed to translate the local accent to my ignorant ears. And assumed that someone would actually be serving deep-fried Pâté, which was clearly bonkers. I bought the Fish Pattie and trudged off to the ground.
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| A November Hull Sunset: Quite Nice. |
I was accompanied on the final five minutes of the walk past the fields by hundreds of city-folk, all off to watch their team play a game of Premiership football, competing as league division equals against Spurs, an established member of English Football's elite clubs.
Something that must have felt like a very distant dream back in 2002 when the first competitive game took place here - a League Three contest against Hartlepool United.
By 2008, Hull had reached the Premiership for their first ever time - a remarkable five seasons from bottom of the football league to competing at the pinnacle. What an amazing ascent and yet again, a wonderful example of what makes the pyramid structure of English League football so amazing and something worth keeping and celebrating.
I hope you are reading this, Greg Dyke. And just as I hope Dyke's bonkers plan to screw up this marvellous pyramid with his League 3 proposals doesn't happen, I similarly hope that Hull's chairman Assam Allam doesn't get his way in the rebranding of the club to "Hull Tigers".
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| Tiger Rebranding: Leave it in the Toilet, Allam! |
Some things have to change - I guess the move to purpose-built stadiums is one of those necessary evils for a club to progress some of us traditionalists don't like to admit too freely. But some things don't need to change for the sake of progress. Wholesale rebranding of the club badge and colours, like Cardiff did. Moving the club away from it's traditional home, like Wimbledon did. These things shouldn't happen if you in any way respect the history and traditions of Football in this country.
Similarly changing the name of a club, removing the "City" from the name of "Hull City AFC", is a step too far, in my opinion.
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| KC Stadium, Hull: Looking Towards the North Stand. |
But then, Hull's Ramirez was sent off in the 50th minute - a dubious decision it must be said and it totally changed the game. 10-men Hull sat back as might be expected, and invited the visitors onto them. Sure enough, the pressure told and Spurs equalised shortly after. And yes, almost as if it was scripted, Spurs got their winner, a rasping shot from 20 yards out to the bottom left corner from Christian Erikson, in the 90th minute, just when the 20,000+ Hull fans had thought they may have got away with it.
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| The Cranswick West Stand, and a Lovely Sunset. |
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| The East Stand. You Are Being Watched, Son. |
It could be worse, you know.
With thanks to Tom Johnson (@TomHCAFC13)
Next Up - Preston North End! (Sat 6th Dec)
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