Belgium
Luxembourg Provincial 1
Sunday 18th November 2018
Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.07
R. Union Sportive Ethe- Belmont 1 R.F.C. St. Hubert 1, attendance 148
44’ 0-1
52’ 1-1
@ Stade Charles Servais
Parking “Aux Onous” 1
6760 Ethe
€ Admission ?
Team Sheet, free.
Today, the car load would be splitting up to do two different matches, as two of us had already been to R. Olympic Club Meix-devant-Virton, which was where the driver was heading in order to complete his visits to all the clubs in the Belgian League. I had seen them beat R. Etoile Sportive Champlonaise 4-1 in a Luxembourg Provincial 1 match on 4th April 2014. With the two grounds being around 14 minutes drive apart, it meant we were dropped off close on ninety minutes before kick off, so we were in the clubhouse well before the pay gate was opened and once again no one came inside to collect the admission money off those that arrived early, so a free afternoons entertainment.
The match was 7th versus 4th in the league table and looked like it might be a second successive goalless match for us, but St. Hubert finally broke the deadlock just before the interval, when a shot that was already going in was helped across the line by their big No.9 from all of a yard out. What had been a pretty tepid affair burst into life when Ethe levelled it up early in the second half and they probably did enough to have won the game on the balance of the overall match.
As our match had kicked off late, it meant we only had a couple of minutes to wait to be picked up afterwards. By 17.05 we were on our way, for the 243 mile drive back to The Tunnel, where we were booked on the 21.49 crossing. All was going well, until we got within 10 minutes of the terminal, where we were held in a massive traffic jam caused by French fuel tax protesters, who are not happy with the increase of fuel duty added by their government. Even with the increase, it is still cheaper than in England !
We decided to try and exit the motorway, but they had the slip road barricaded as well, using metal gates and burning fires to disrupt the traffic as much as possible, only allowing 3 or 4 cars to pass through every 5 minutes or so. There were hundreds of protesters walking in the road and running up the motorway embankments and onto the carriageway to prevent traffic moving forward, but despite this, there were no police in sight, although there looked to be plenty of flashing blue lights around and continuous sirens blaring, but no sign of removing the blockage.
We made it through, going around the outskirts of Calais, before approaching the terminal from the opposite direction, where the motorway was free of protesters, although according to our live traffic information, this was only freed up in the last half hour. We actually missed our check-in for our booked 21.49 train, but were offered a place on the next train out which was due at 22.10. Amazingly, this left two minutes early, so we were only nineteen minutes behind our schedule. We thought we would have to contend with the M20 being closed between Junctions 6 and 4, which was supposed to last until Monday morning, but the traffic was moving through unhindered. So, in the end, everything turned out quite well considering…….
