No. 79: Carrow Road [Norwich City]

Saturday, 14th March 2015
Norwich City v. Derby County [Championship] 1-1

This trip was a real milestone for me.

Not only was I ticking off another ground and now well on the way to the 92 club, I was also visiting Norfolk for the very first time and have thus now visited EVERY county of England.

Yes, that's also including all the metropolitan boroughs. Yes, and Rutland. And if you haven't ever heard of Rutland then sorry but you haven't also visited every county, so there - I am the County King.

I nearly didn't make this one though. Coming down with a dose of the flu in the middle of the week, I was feeling so sorry for myself that come Friday I looked doubtful for a trip to see Nelson's birthplace, having seen the spot where he croaked it just a few weeks earlier.

But the 92 quest was too important to let illness get in the way - and besides which I'd already bought the ticket and it was forty fucking quid!

Thankfully, in a rare appearance on a 92 Club match day for Fantastic Mrs Ox, I was able to drift in and out of drug-induced consciousness in the passenger seat as my angel wife drove the 3hrs cross-country to the eastern wilds of Norfolk.

There is a reason that Norfolk was the last English county I'd managed to find myself in - and that is the fact that it really isn't a county you'll ever find yourself driving through to get somewhere else. You are here because you are specifically visiting Norfolk - out on a limb as the eastern rump of England, sticking out into the North Sea like a big round county-sized arse. If you'll pardon the expression.

Norwich City Hall: Stark.

From what I saw of Norwich though, this bum-shaped part of the country was well overdue my visit  - it's a very fine city indeed.

We started our pilgrimage by a walk around the Norwich Market, and the gigantic 1930s art deco structure that is Norwich City Hall that sits above it, beyond grand concrete staircases and period streetlamps in front - quite an impressive sight.

Norwich Market: "Twizzle That!"

The deckchair-striped pastel-coloured roofing of the market seemed nostalgically familiar despite this being my first trip to the city - I realised that I had of course seen famous fictional resident Alan Partridge walking amongst the stalls in a recent mock documentary, as I also recognised other highlights of the City's skyline on my walk to Carrow Road later that afternoon.

Up With the Partridge.

Steve Coogan's failed and flawed Norfolk DJ is always the first thing I think of when I think of Norwich, and I'm sure his celebration of all things Anglian is a mixed blessing for the city. The man is of course, sold to us as a self-important figure of ridicule, and his indulgence of references to the city over the years since his first appearance on TV is meant to highlight the fact that he's, well - a little bit "provincial".

But I think the city has more recently rather taken to its most famous fictional son. The 2013 Partridge film had its world premiere in Norwich, and the local tourist board even offer Alan-themed walking tours of the city, in the summer months. A-ha indeed.

Sadly there weren't any Alan tours on a cold winter's morn for us, so we had to make do uncovering any issues surrounding the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre on our own.

The pedestrianised cobbled streets of the "Norwich Lanes" were actually quite nice to potter around, with their quaint little shops and arcades.

We even found that most well-known of Norwich brands, The Colman's Mustard Shop and Museum - and as luck may have it a man with a wicker basket on his head happened to be walking past it as I took this picture.

Well, each to their own.

Grosvenor Fish Bar, Norwich. Fishlicious.

Fish 'n' Chips - Lunch Classic

Our lovely lunch spot amongst the cobbles was in the Tourist Board approved Grosvenor Fish Bar on Lower Goat Lane, where we indulged in a traditional Fish 'n' Chip lunch - replete with an ancillary portion of Toad in the Hole. Outstanding.

Bogged down with fried fish and carbs and the remnants of my cold  in the Norfolk sun, there was just enough time to take a walk up to the striking Norman-era Castle at the centre of the city, and have a walk around its battlements.

The stone keep still towering over Norwich today was built around 1100 - and as we visited it only a couple of hours later at 1pm I was astounded the concrete had already set well enough for us to wonder about inside it.

(I'm here all week, ladies and gentlemen).

Norwich Castle: Norman.

The 900-year-old structure was in remarkable condition considering its age - although I'm sure certain parts of it have been built and renovated in more recent centuries. Such as the glass lift-shaft in the foreground of the above picture, for starters. I don't think that was listed in the Domesday Book.

It's a remarkable place and the galleries inside the museum are worth a peek around, but the real highlight is being inside the atmospheric stone chamber of the ancient keep itself. It's about £8 to go in, but if you are sneaky, you can bypass the attendants via the gift shop and look around for free.

Not that this is something I did or recommend anyone else does of course, and any enquiries from members of the Norfolk Constabulary on this matter will be referred straight to this categorical denial and disapproval of such activities.

Carrow Road: Functional 1970s design.

Shortly afterwards, I left Mrs Ox shopping and took the short 20min walk from the city centre via the banks of the river Wensum to the football ground.

From the outside, Carrow Road isn't the most attractive or interesting to look at of the 79 League grounds I've visited so far.

Delia's at Carrow Road: Gastro.

It's a typical late-20th century re-build at the oldest parts of the ground - the end behind the goal closest to the river (currently the "Norwich & Peterborough Stand"), is the oldest, completed in 1979, and houses "Delia's" fine-dining restaurant within its brick facade.

Celebrity TV chef Delia Smith (along with her husband the writer Michael Wynn-Jones) is of course the well-known majority shareholder of Norwich City FC, and attends most games with her green and yellow scarf very publicly on display around her neck.

Delia: "Where are you?!"

She's probably best-known amongst football fans for her association with Norwich City, thanks to the infamous 'rallying call' she gave on the pitch to the home fans during the half-time interval during a Premiership match in 2005.

I'm sure you've all seen it so it would be childish to post a link to its cringe-worthiness here, wouldn't it? Let's be 'Aving You!!!!

I was housed for the game in the newest part of Carrow Road - the Jarrold South Stand, completed in 2004 and running alongside the pitch. Again, from the outside the most inspiring word you would think of for this stand would be functional.

The 2004 Jarrold Stand and adjacent swanky riverside apartments: A Modern City.

Beyond the car park immediately behind the Jarrold are a number of brand new swanky apartment blocks up against the riverside, that have sprung up within the last year. Talking to a steward outside the ground, I learnt that this was previously the site of Read's Flour Mills for generations.

This is a sight you see of modern city centres all over the country - the former 19th century industrial and commercial landscapes swept away as modern residential blocks come in alongside the 21st century cantilevered football stands. As sure as the mill's former workers are priced out of the living space here, so too they give way to the modern, middle-class affluent football families attending games at Carrow Road. All in the name of progress, of course.

Looking towards the Barclay End.

I'm generalising to make a point. But I do have to wonder how many families are able to afford the £40 per adult ticket I was asked to pay for this game, week in, week out.

It was certainly something not lost on the travelling Derby fans I was sat next to on the right side of the Jarrold. Their most popular song of the day went along the lines of "Twenty is plenty, Forty is naughty, Delia is a fucking arsehole!"

It was like something out of a 1980s Harry Enfield sketch as some of the Norwich contingent in the Barclay End waved their bulging wallets at the 'Northern' visitors, proudly proclaiming that Delia did indeed have their £40s, and that paying for the talent involved in the home side's well-taken 1st-half goal was why it was so expensive.

City Stand: With City Views Beyond.

Inside the ground - Carrow Road leaves behind the functional exterior and takes on the mantle of a lovely, tight arena which must bustle with atmosphere for big games. A Derby fan entering the ground and clearly impressed himself caught my eye as I sat pre-match reading my programme. "Nice ground mate", he said sincerely. I nodded and muttered back "thanks a lot" before I knew what I was doing.

He was right though - this was a great ground, seeming to have a little bit of character and modernity in equal measure. The only negative was the Holiday Inn taking up one corner of the ground between the Jarrold and Barclay Stands.

Opposite the Jarrold is the 1986-built Geoffrey Watling City Stand, which itself houses the director's box and thus Delia Smith and Stephen Fry cramp in their egos together in there on match days.

It's a single-tier, small affair dwarfed on all sides by the rest of the ground - but I'm a fan of the  Edwardian-style clock in the centre of the stand, and its nod towards the pre-war stand that must have preceded it.

I chose this game because it had all the hallmarks of being a humdinger in the race for the Championship title. Going into the match, four teams including Derby were on 66 points at the top of the table - and Norwich just 1 point behind those front-runners. Middlesbrough's early KO victory over Norwich's arch rivals Ipswich put paid to the slight chance of Norwich finishing the day at the summit - but they could stamp a real claim on automatic promotion with a victory over Derby this afternoon.

Aviva Community Stand in the corner, N&P Stand behind the goal.

And the home side started the more lively, taking the game to Derby from the off. Cameron Jerome's tap-in on the half-hour came from a wonderful play down the Norwich left, culminating in a pin-point cross from Martin Olsen to the unmarked Canaries top-scorer who could hardly miss.

The crowd went wild. The flags were flying and the thick Norfolk Farmer accents underneath the tweed flat caps and Barbour jackets around me were full of talk of a title charge. Well OK, that was a stereotype I didn't really see very much of in my time in Norwich - save it must be said for the extraordinarily thick accent of the old guy sat two rows directly behind me.

At times I found his rural twang of elongated vowels and lazy consonants almost impenetrable as I eavesdropped in on the wonderful old boy describe what it was like standing behind the railings at the River End in the 1950s. Great days!

The second-half was a less vibrant affair. The cold wind was whipping into Norfolk from the North-East, and as my hands began to turn blue I think the players may have felt the chill and the flowing football stuttered somewhat. Derby came back into the game but up until their goal they had only really forced Norwich's goalkeeper John Ruddy into one 2nd half save.

That became pretty much the only save Ruddy did manage as well, as shortly afterwards he managed to juggle an inoffensive-looking corner straight into his own net. Absolutely appalling. Still, the Derby fans made the most of their equaliser and were keen to point out to me and all the Norwich fans around me that they had big ears.

Derby Fans: Taunting. Holiday Inn just visible behind.

A good game of football, two points dropped for both teams in the race for promotion but I'm sure both will believe they are still in that race.

I left a now positively arctic Carrow Road at high speed and bolted back up the hill to the city to get my wife and my car back on the long, slow A-roads west and away from Norfolk.

It was a good day out, Norwich a pretty and welcoming city - and Carrow Road has the feel of a great mid-sized ground in a city-centre location. I liked Norwich and the Norfolk folks I met there a lot.

A-Ha!


Next up: WIGAN'S DW STADIUM! Saturday, 21st March 2015.