best of both

It was a gorgeous Saturday in London and in the spirit of summer I decided to accompany my husband to the Telegraph pub in Putney to watch the second game of the Lions rugby series in South Africa. The pub was packed and the atmosphere suitably buzzing with such a mixture of people that I wouldn’t have felt out of place if I had brought my great-granny along.
We found a good spot – where I could actually see the screen – at a table beside two Lions supporters. In the corner was the “buggy brigade” where all the mom’s had parked off with their newborns (I counted four but might have missed a few as they were just so tiny). The dad’s weren’t far but had distanced themselves suitably so as not to be roped into some task that would distract them from what was shaping up to be an exciting game. To our left was a large table of pensioners who had obviously come to enjoy a Saturday afternoon lunch and instead found themselves surrounded by rowdy rugby supporters. Nonetheless, they didn’t seem too perturbed and chattered amongst themselves and feigned the odd interested glance over at the big screen.
Support was almost certainly equally split between the two teams and I smiled to myself that here we all were just enjoying the match side-by-side. Being South African-British myself - I tick both boxes on official forms - I am usually torn when someone asks me where “home” is but when it comes to sports teams there is never any doubt; I’ll always shout for the boys in green. I looked over and there was a tiny-tot in a Springbok jersey, the little girl beside me told her dad, in her British accent, that she was supporting the team in green, the guy in front of us was shouting at the screen in Afrikaans and I wondered how far from home you could stray and still feel like you never left. There was no obvious rivalry just a sense that this was neutral territory and all we really cared about was that our team won.
It turned out to be a nail biter but the Boks took the game in the last minute and perhaps if I was filling in one of those forms that day, I might just tick one box for a change. The Lions supporters at our table stood to leave and congratulated us on our teams victory and because of that great gesture of sportsmanship I thought, had I been filling in one of those forms, I may in fact consider ticking the other box too.