Home alone (but not for long, as one World Cup widow prepares to make her getaway) (From The Northern Echo)

Home alone (but not for long, as one World Cup widow prepares to make her getaway)

12:15pm Tuesday 15th June 2010 in

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With football dominating the headlines and TV screens, Ruth Addicott talks to sports writer’s wife Katy Wilson and offers some hints on how to escape the hysteria.

WHEN it comes to the best way to tell your wife you’re going to the World Cup, announcing it live on BBC Tees probably isn’t one of them.

For Katy, long-suffering wife of football fanatic and chief sports writer for The Northern Echo, Scott Wilson, it was enough to produce a straight red.

“He didn’t tell me he was going to South Africa,” she says. “I was thinking about all the places we could spend the summer, then I heard him on BBC Tees talking about how excited he was to be going. He didn’t think I’d be listening.”

Katy’s life has been dominated by football since the couple first got together seven years ago. She was invited to see Leeds v West Ham for one of their first dates – and Christmas and summer holidays have been dictated by North-East football fixtures ever since.

“On holiday last year we spent all day driving around Larnaca to find Cyprus v Montenegro,” she says. “It ended with all the Cyprus fans throwing chips at the referee.”

Scott has travelled the length and breadth of Europe and even to Russia to see England – but things came to a head three years ago when he forgot Katy’s birthday. “I reminded him and he promised he’d get back in time to celebrate with me. He arrived back at quarter to midnight – I was already in bed and asleep,”

she says.

While Scott has tried to whisk Katy away to glamorous locations to try to make up for his lapse (Dundee, Birmingham and Crystal Palace to name but a few), she is now resigned to the fact that on most weekends she’ll be a football widow.

According to Katy, it’s not so much the World Cup that winds her up, but the hype surrounding it. She’s even had to fork out for football stickers.

“I’m too embarrassed to admit they’re for my 30-something husband.

Our nights are spent negotiating swaps and seeking out that elusive shiny England badge,” she says.

“Of course I want England to do well, but with Sky Sports News every minute, Match Of The Day every Saturday night and my husband jetting off with no invitation to me, I look forward to a few weeks off in the summer.”

While the hype is one thing, losing is another and, like thousands of other football widows up and down the country, Katy is bracing herself for the outpouring of grief when England get knocked out on penalties by the Germans.

With Scott safely out of earshot, watching re-runs of Italia 90 on a plane to South Africa, Katy was relishing the chance to let off some steam. “The thing that annoys me most about football is how predictable it all is,” she says. “Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will never be as good as they want to be, Newcastle will not get back to their glory days with Robson, England will not win the World Cup and footballers will be caught doing things they shouldn’t –- and be paid too much. Even though Scott knows all this, every season he builds up his hopes like a little kid and is heartbroken.”

NORMALLY won over by his intellect, wit and charm, Katy claims Scott turns into a “complete moron” when talking about England and, like most men, loses all sense of proportion. “We know it will inevitably all end in tears and it’ll be an early exit for England, but there’s a full-blown row in our house when I even try to suggest it,” she says.

Not content with staying at home reading his up-to-the minute tweets and blogs on England’s progress (thenorthernecho.co.uk – for those who are interested), Katy has taken matters into her own hands and booked a flight to Spain with her sister, mum and auntie (fellow World Cup widows).

At least she’s likely to be in the right place to down a celebratory Sangria with the eventual winners.

Football: The full translation

WHEN it comes to football, you can’t trust a man to say what he’s thinking.

The book, A Matter of Life or Death: Or How to Wean a Man off Football, by Ronni Acona offers the following:

He says: “No, you go out, darling. They’re more your friends than mine, anyway.”
He means: “I want to watch the football.”

He says: “Why don’t you have an early night?”
He means: “I want to watch the football.”

He says: “I’ll babysit; you go and have a good time. You deserve it.”

She thinks: “He wants to watch the football.”

He says: “You look gorgeous, have you lost weight?”
He means: “Can I watch the football?”

He says: “I thought you didn’t want to celebrate your birthday.”
He means: “There’s a game on tomorrow night – and I’ve got tickets.”

He says: “Push, darling! Push!”
He means: “When would be the best time to check the scores?”

He says: “Push, darling! Push!”
She thinks: “I bet the real father wouldn’t want to check the scores.”