Clash Of The Cracow Clans
A wave of anxiety seemed to sweep through Cracow on Friday night.
'Do you know what's happening this weekend?' people asked furtively. 'It's the Cracovia Wisla match,' they would add, as if two pagan gods were coming to do battle with each other on the following dawn.
Horror stories abounded about the teeth-gnashing antics of the last clash of Cracow's footballing clans, some eight years ago.
'Don't go out on Sunday afternoon' warned the goodly folk, 'it's just not safe,' they would add, before vanishing into the night.
Cracow Life's scribbler decided to go for a walk in rural Ojcow that Sunday. The leaves were reddening in the forest, and there seemed no better time to enjoy the delights of the surrounding countryside.
When he settled down for a late lunch at the 'Bat Tavern', after a jaunt around the castle of Pieskowa Skala, the ensuing madness at Cracow's Wisla stadium could not have seemed further away.
But just as our scribbler was beginning to tuck into his Zurek soup, an almighty din seemed to take hold of the normally sleepy tavern.
A couple of gentle-looking fellows had turned on the television to watch the match, and within seconds the cellar was engulfed by the war-like chants of the fans at Cracow, some 15 miles away. Battle had commenced.
For the kindly folk in the tavern, there was no more cosy place in the world to watch the match. But for Cracow Life's scribbler and his concerned lady companion, the chanting offered a chilly premonition of things to come.
James Bond type escape routes were planned as a means of avoiding the post-match pandemonium, and as their bus pulled back into Cracow that evening, our adventurers half-expected to be faced with the kind of hellish vision that one finds in a Hieronymous Bosch painting.
But a rather different sight greeted our adventurers as the bus pulled into town. Indeed, Cracow station that night seemed a markedly unthreatening place. Cheerful students were returning to the city, fresh for the new term, and plump ladies were selling their 'obwarzanki' rolls, just as normal. All in all it was a remarkably peaceful scene.
The reason for this peculiar calm is perhaps best explained in the result of the titanic clash. A draw. The goodly Cracovians had prayed for a draw, and this time that's what they got. God be praised.
Certainly, there were one or two reports of excited young gentleman bouncing on parked cars on their return from the stadium, but this was but the gentlest of ripples compared to the tidal wave of trouble that is said to have erupted eight years ago. Some even wondered whether the match had been fixed so as to avoid the post-match madness.
In the meantime, it's all calm on the Western front for another year or so, although there is no denying that a draw is not a little embarrassing for Wisla, who as national champions, certainly were capable of beating underdogs Cracovia. Whatever the truth (and a fix seems highly unlikely) the Mayor of Cracow must have slept peacefully in his bed last night, and Cracow's police must have heaved a collective sigh of relief too. Peace in our time.