Joshua Judson

Always writing, I am.

My family and I won the chance to stay in Wales and watch Nottingham Forest vs Cardiff City last weekend. Here’s something I wrote about it for the Cardiff City website:

[went all deep and John Green-y at the end.]




Anyone who has ever rung in at the end of Bargain Hunt or X Factor to answer a blindingly obvious question to no avail will no doubt feel a certain cynicism towards such competitions. A cynicism I would have whole heartedly shared until very recently.

‘We WON!’ squealed my mother from behind her laptop after dinner last week. She had seen a competition on the Nottingham Forest FC Facebook page, offering to put up a family of four in Wales for two nights with free entry to Cardiff City Stadium where we would see Forest play Cardiff. A long shot to say the least, but a chance worth taking. All it took was my eleven year old brother to know the answer to the arbitrary question (which was, by the way, ‘Robert Earnshaw’), then we were in business.

So it came to pass that we, the humble Judson family from Long Eaton, found ourselves falling out of bed on Friday and into a people carrier. 3 hours later, we’re enjoying tea and Welsh cakes in the quaint New Farm bed and breakfast just outside Barry [insert Gavin & Stacy reference here]. Both bed and breakfast we found to be more than adequate, and the hosts friendly and generous. If ever a weekend away in South Wales tickles your fancy, then New Farm is definitely the way to go.

Saturday morning saw us traipse into Cardiff. Parking in the shadow of Cardiff City Stadium, we were met at the main entrance by hospitality staff who could not do enough for us. After a walk down to the pitch and a photo opportunity in the away side dug-out, we were shown to the Sony Suite, where complimentary beer and hot fork buffet were provided. My brother and I kept ourselves occupied till kick-off by taking turns playing as Forest on Fifa 13 in a well tech-ed out corner of the suite. The HD screen, however, proved no use as a source of clues as to the outcome of the actual game, with both sides winning an equal amount of matches. I felt like my Playstation skills did not quite do the virtual Forest any favours; but in my defence, there was free beer.

We took our place in the away stand and watched both teams run onto the pitch, nervous and excited. The away fans were strong in number and in voice, loudly belting out an impressive array of words to make my mum wince. There was a disappointing lack of close-harmony singing from the Cardiff supporters which made me think that perhaps these Welsh guys weren’t that much cop after all.

I was wrong. Forest put up a good fight, and might have been able to equalise at one or two points, but Darius Henderson’s sending off was our death sentence. Cardiff put two more goals past Darlow to deservedly claim the match.

‘Regardless of the score’, I mused to myself over a worn 2p machine in one of Barry’s arcades the next morning, ‘this weekend has been a great experience’. As I watched a quids worth of 2p’s clatter down to join their copper brethren, I became very aware of the fact that chances, whether they be on the football pitch, at the 2p machine or on a Facebook page are almost always worth a try.

You never know whether yours will be the name picked out of the hat, so why not put it in? If you’re lucky, yours might be the 2 pence piece that sends the garish, green whistle hurtling down the chute into your unsuspecting hand. Sometimes you may only gain a green whistle but sometimes you might get a once in a lifetime opportunity at the expense of generous strangers. That weekend I got both. It was a good’un.

- Joshua Judson