Wales fans made it to Azerbaijan in a Banger

Jun 11 2009 by Andrew Gilpin, North Wales Weekly News

A GROUP of intrepid football fans finally made it to Azerbaijan after a journey across 14 countries, giving gifts to orphanages along the way.

The 26 Wales supporters finished their “Baku in a Banger” driving challenge with a day to spare before John Toshack’s men took on the Azeri in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday.

They relaxed with a well-earned beer in the Baku Hyatt after a gruelling two-week journey.

And the trip certainly wasn’t without incident as nine cars set off, but only six made it all the way.

“We did 2,168 miles before our car broke down in Romania,” said Marc Colclough from Conwy.

“We were literally one cave away from entering Bulgaria. Thankfully we were in convoy so we had to transfer to another car.

“But packing in there meant the car’s sump was dragging on the floor. It cracked, we lost oil in the hotel car park and had to nurse that car all the way to the end.

“We then had to take a bus from Bulgaria to Istanbul, and that took 12 hours, before picking up a hire car.”

That was just one of the scrapes the group got into on the long journey, before they faced their biggest test in the trouble-hit former Soviet country of Georgia.

“We left the cars there near the border on Thursday,” added Marc. “First we had to get them all registered.

“We were under house arrest in the hotel until we got the paperwork sorted. It was supposed to have been sorted out by the time we got there because they knew we were planning it, but we knew never to take anything for granted.”

The football fans with the Welsh supporters charity Gôl came up with their unusual method of driving the 5,000 miles to Baku after an ad was placed looking for volunteers in a Wales football fanzine before last year’s match with Holland.

“A lot of us thought it was a good idea and we did the first drop of stuff in Bratislava,” added Marc. "It was like the Cannonball Run with less speed!”

And would Marc do it again?

“If I did it would need a lot more planning and research. We had an interpreter through Georgia and Azerbaijan and that helped so much. It certainly was an adventure,” he said.

The group flew back to Wales after Wales won 1-0 against Azerbaijan.

The 12 from North Wales were Dylan Jones from Nefyn, Meilir Williams from Bangor, Osian Edwards from Rhyl, Owain Llyr from Criccieth, Dave Jones from Wrexham, Richard Jones from Penmaenmawr and Geraint Williams, Rhys and Hywel Iorwerth, Gavin Jones and Andrew Williams, all from Caernarfon.