A Saturday Night in Bedford Town

Its Summer 2012. Slap bang in the middle of the European Championships and its England vs Italy in the quarter-finals. I'm sat at home with a few mates and boxes of pizza watching on the TV as, apart from the first ten minutes, Italy walk all over England in a game that somehow finished 0-0. It went to penalties, and inevitably, we lost.

I can only imagine if England footballers knew how to take penalty kicks under pressure, I would have started this post in a much different fashion. But because they can't, the scenes that unfolded became one of Bedford's most embarrassing nights. You see, Bedford has the highest population of Italians per capita in the United Kingdom, and when they come face to face in a sporting competition, the rivalry has that extra edge to it. Rivalry is all well and good of course, but not when it spills over. England's defeat led to trouble on a scale I had never seen, and I was pretty glad I wasn't out in town as a riot broke out. Cars were smashed up, people were injured and it was carnage. It was the main story on BBC News for a couple of days, and all in all, it just wasn't very nice.

Just for your information, England face Italy again this year, in the upcoming World Cup, and its scheduled to take place at 11pm on a Saturday night. Best of luck to Bedfordshire Police.

Saturday nights are always a bit over the top here. Usually, as if it needs saying, I'm a wee bit merry and don't notice it as much, but for the past month, I haven't been. Last night, for what will be the final time on a night out for the foreseeable future, I was stone cold sober, and we ended up in Yates. I haven't been there for ages on a Saturday night, and after ten minutes I was reminded why. You could see the eyes pop out of guy's heads as they stared at girls dressed in nothing walk past them, despite it being below freezing outside. Obviously, said girls would complain about it. But I won't go there. There was pushing and shoving at the bar, arguments breaking out, and people acting like general idiots, while I, wondering what I was doing, shuffled around awkwardly in a circle dancing to music I had never heard before. I've been doing this for the past month of course, but there was tension in the air. Last night in Bedford town, there was an (alleged) murder, three fights, (that amounted to a number of serious injuries), and the bar next door to Yates was tear-gassed.

Yes, you did read that right. Tear gas.

I was home before 1am. Which is a first for me, but for the first time ever, I felt properly uneasy out and about. I could feel it in the air.

As for the Dryathlon, I have raised £240-99 of my £250 target so far, (I was docked 1p of a donation for refusing to go out on Friday night!), and it ends at midnight this Friday night/Saturday morning. Frankly, I can't wait. Although... I am a tad apprehensive at what awaits... I have been promised many presents...

Have a good week.