What a way to celebrate the national holiday, Dia de Canarias, a thumping 4-0 away win at Sevilla Athletic for CD Tenerife – promotion is almost in our grasp. I spent the day in Santa Cruz to make the most of the festivities, and watched the game on a 15 metre screen at the Pabellon de Deportes, in the shadow of the CDT ground.
My day started early, heading for Parque Ofra in Ingenieros, one of the stops on the new Line 2 of the Santa Cruz tram system. The official inauguration was at Noon and the trams didn’t start running until after, so I had to use a mix of the Line 1 tram and Titsa bus to get there. the second line from Tincer to La Cuesta cost 55 million euros, and consists of just 6 stops, intersecting the first line at 2 points.
Parque Ofra has a permanent exhibition about recycling and environmental awareness, the wind turbine exhibit and the solar cooking dishes made a nice modern contrast to the tradition and culture of the Canarian dancers and musicians. After the usual politicians had made their speeches, all the dignitaries went up and down the line crammed on the 2 trams, leaving the platform crowded with people waiting to get home. I narrowly avoided being the first person to get splattered by a tram, and eventually got on and made the return trip to central Santa Cruz.
I stopped at the Teatro Guimera, there was a Romeria going on with music, dancing and plenty of bunting. A straw circle had even been marked out for a farner to display 2 of his livestock, though he later moved them into the shade, there’s nothing worse than sweaty bullocks.
On to the football, and time for a few Doradas, the sports hall was pretty busy, probably near 1,500 people in, it was FREE, and all in good voice. I was worried that over confidence against the bottom team could trip us up, that was dispelled in 10 minutes as Ninos blocked shot came to Alfaro who blasted CDT into the lead. just before the half hour mark Nino scored from a Juanlu corner and Daniel Kome, just before Cameroon duty, made it 3-0 a couple of minutes after. Sevilla were poor but Tenerife still had a job to do and a Nino penalty in the second half sealed the game. Three games left and still in second place, leaders Xerez at home next week is a tough one and providing the travel company don’t try to shaft us again, I will be at Girona the week after for what could be the clincher, leaving the Castellon home game as one big party. Sunday Stop Press – Hercules have just drawn this morning, that means CDT need just 4 points from 3 games to go up.