Hatters Worldwide- 3 John & Joan Cowles ( Australia )

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 image- hedgegrower

 

 

 

 

 

Hatters Worldwide- 3 John & Joan Cowles ( Australia)

 

 

The third subjects of `Hatters Worldwide`  live at Port Macquarie, a small seaside town 240 miles north of Sydney, in Australia- County supporters John and Joan Cowles.

 

John is an Aussie born and raised in Sydney, with a dash of New South Wales in the mix as well, and he was drawn to County via Joan, who was born in Edgeley.

Joan emigrated to Australia from Stockport, in 1966….met John in  1967 and the happy duo married in 1969, and have two sons and three grandsons.

It was Joan and her family who encouraged John to start following County, and he was impressed by the promotion and nurturing of local football talent, and over the years they have had the pleasure of watching great County players such as Liam Dickinson and Kevin Francis.

 

 

 

John and Joan were last in the UK in 2017, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first meeting, by seeing the Town and taking in a couple of County games.

 John & Joan with Mike- image hedgegrower

 

 testing the playing surface- image hedgegrower

 

 

 

They also met Help the Hatters, enjoyed a visit to the County Museum , but their fondest wish was to get a look at County`s famous playing surface at  Edgeley Park  ( and `meet the Curator` as John put it), which they did – big thanks there to Mike O`Brien and Mark Lockyear.

 

 meeting Help the Hatters in County Museum- image hedgegrower

 

 

 booking for Curzon game- image hedgegrower

 

 

 

It was a happy, but sadly short visit, here`s to the next one!

 

Coming up to date, and despite 2020 being ` a year to forget`( more of John`s words) Joan and John  are keeping well, notwithstanding  having had drought, fires, and the not inconsiderable impact of Covid 19 to deal with.

 

John offered one shaft of light, with his insight that “  The impact of Covid has not been as great as in the rest of the world. I feel the reason for this is due our government being proactive with compulsory and voluntary isolation when infections occur. In one instance there was a lockdown for 100 days in Victoria.” adding that “ We have been told our vaccine will be available in March, and we look forward to that” .

 

And…..whilst the UK was experiencing rather different weather conditions ( floods etc) Oz have had fire and drought to deal with.

 

The next photo is of smoke, not cloud, from the fire that was about one kilometre from John and Joan`s house- their solar powered garden lights coming on about 2pm due to the unnatural darkness.

 

 darkness in the afternoon- image j cowles

 

 

Thankfully though the fires have either been contained or extinguished, so fingers crossed for John and Joan and all Oz, but the worst of the fires hit Port Macquarie`s large population of Koalas killing over 200 of them.

 

 image j cowles

 

 

Some good old fashioned British wet stuff would no doubt sort matters, but they have not had any worthwhile rain for the last three to four years.

 

Meanwhile, a change of wind direction and some water bombers greatly eased any threat.

 

 emergency fire tank- image j cowles

 

John really misses going to County games and reading hedgegrower`s  match reports on Sunday morning.

 

That said, he has kept a keen County eye on former County goal ace Adam Le Fondre who has promoted the County name almost continually there, as he plays for Sydney FC in the Oz  version of the premier league.

John confirms that Adam continues to score almost every game, the commentators always adding when he does "that goal by Adam Le Fondre formerly of Stockport County"

 

John and Joan hope to be returning to the UK in 2021, which will be great, meanwhile big thanks to John for updating us on how things are for Joan and himself !

 

Finally, an update from hedgegrower.

 We have articles featuring exiles in Thailand and Spain coming up soon, as well as one from a County fan in St louis USA,  but hedgegrower needs the vast army of County exiles to tell the world your story , start this off by contacting old hedgie - thank you !

 

 

hedgegrower

 

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