![]() ![]() I was travelling with my then girlfriend and while we’d been together for some time it wasn’t working. ![]() The city immediately started to strike a chord with me, and that reached a crescendo high above the port at the Duomo, the city’s main church. The rain abated and gradually the clouds broke allowing the sun to greet the view of the city across the bay as we left nearby Falconara. We decided to take the train down the coast to Ancona. It was a wet Monday that greeted the post Cesena celebrations, no weather for our beach resort just south of Rimini. They ultimately were successful in going up, but the day after the Catania game something happened that started to alter the course of my allegiances! Cesena’s 2,1 win over Catania didn’t get them immediate promotion, but sent them into a three way play off for one spot with Cremonese and Lecce. It was a real cliffhanger of a first game abroad too, with a whole heap of possible permutations riding on the outcome, it made sure the ground was full to over capacity, back when rules were more laxed. However, in June 1987 I finally fulfilled my dream of seeing a game at the Stadio Dino Manuzzi. I plotted Cesena’s struggles on a weekly basis via Guerin Sportivo which arrived in my hands from an International Newsagent in Edinburgh’s High Street, but the information was already around 10 days out of date. The legacy of those innocent Subbuteo days has left a lasting enthusiasm for Cesena and Volendam, and while I got to Cesena for the first of five games there as early as June 1987, I only made an inaugural trip to the much nearer Dutch fishing port in July 2018. Hereford v Blackpool was another possible match up with the same teams, or if you were drawn to the more exotic sounding clubs at the bottom of each listing like me, names that meant nothing at the time, Cesena v Volendam was even better! This was long before the Internet could not only bring you chat about these clubs, or immediate minute by minute updates on the score, but potentially a live feed of action. ![]() I am sure I am not alone in becoming interested in certain clubs courtesy of that bastion of yesteryear, the Subbuteo team catalogue! The 1974 World Cup Final kits were purchased in the flick to kick wobbly base style, but somehow West Germany v The Netherlands (or Holland as we knew them back in the day) soon became a dull encounter. ![]()
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