This was not quite such an early start but it did require more negotiation of busy commuter trains with a buggy. We got to Earl's Court in good time, and were properly searched for the first time in 3 events - my 2 litre bottle of water was detected and they didn't let me keep it empty either!
Our seats were right at the very too at the very back, but we had a pretty decent view nonetheless. It seemed that this was the policy for the discounted tickets, as there were other families around us.
Apart from the rowing, all the venues seem to think it is necessary to whip (or try to) the crowd into a frenzy with various gimmicks - I love Volleyball to the tune of I love Rock'n'Roll, bongo cam, a tiresome bloke with a microphone, loud music between points. I think there is a possibly a market for this, and the kids like it, I found it a bit wearing after a while, and it wasn't half noisy!
When we applied for tickets, the qualifying tournaments hadn't finished, so we had no idea what we'd be getting. It was the same in Athens, where we'd lucked into seeing Brazil. So quite how Earl's Court was overrun by Poles & Bulgarians, who were playing in the second match, I don't know. They must have been getting tickets through national federations ir something, which did make me wonder, once again, quite how they allocated tickets in the ballot.
The games were pretty good - first up Tunisia v Serbia, which Serbia won 3-1 - as they should have really, being ranked in the top 5. Tunisia were better than their number 20 ranking suggested, and winning a set was well deserved.
Then came Poland v Bulgaria. The sheer numbers of Poles in the venue made it like a home game for them, and their fans were VERY partisan - jeers & catcalls when Bulgaria were serving, counting the volleys before they had to hit it, silence when Bulgaria won a point. The neutrals were behind Bulgaria. As number 3 in the world behind Brazil & Russia, they are fancied for a medal, but maybe they were too arrogant, or maybe the Bulgarians (also a top 10 side) were spurred on by the crowd, but they won the first two sets. In the 3rd set the Poles turned it on a bit and won easily, but they couldn't keep it up and they lost in 4 to a deserving & delighted Bulgaria.
The Pluses:
The atmosphere was great, having fans of the teams playing certainly added to it, however it transpired. All the paraphenalia wasn't strictly necessary though.
Access was very easy, straight to West Brompton then over the road. Once we were in, we were directed to lifts etc, and they allowed us to leave via the entrance to save the walk around the whole building to the train station.
The Negatives:
They overegged the "airport style" security a bit, confiscating a tiny pair of nail scissors which had been through other security checks. They did at least keep them for us to collect afterwards. They also finally confiscated my trusty 2 litre bottle which had been through 2 previous security checks, as it was "too big"...
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