A flying beer can struck a car bringing Norwich City owner Delia Smith to Portman Road for her club’s crunch derby clash with rivals Ipswich Town, with the celebrity chef visibly shaken up afterwards. Delia’s BMW was in the car park of Ipswich Town’s home ground when the can sailed through the air and missing the windscreen by mere feet.
Delia was in the backseat of the vehicle at the time. The car, which had been following Ipswich’s team bus, was also enveloped in blue smoke from flares lit by Town supporters.
Delia remained in the car for at least ten minutes before emerging to take her seat in the directors’ box. Pictures taken at the scene showed her with police officers behind her, looking somewhat shaken by the experience.
It is not the first time the 82-year-old, who together with her husband Michael Wynn-Jones, has been a majority shareholder in Norwich since 1996, has made headlines at a match. In 2005, with the club deep in a relegation battle, she famously grabbed the mic from the club announcer at half-time during a home fixture with Manchester City, saying: “A message for the best football supporters in the world: we need a 12th man here.
“Where are you? Where are you? Let’s be ‘avin’ you! Come on!” Norwich went on to lose the fixture 3-2.
Questioned later about the unusual incident, she denied she had been drinking beforehand, but admitted: “Maybe in the heat of the moment I didn’t choose the best words”
Today’s match went rather better, with the sides battling out a fiercely contested 2-2 draw in which both led at once stage.
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna said: “It was a great occasion in terms of the build up and the supporters did the club proud in terms of the atmosphere they created. “I thought it was a really good performance and we were the better team by a considerable margin, created lots and lots of chances, give away very few chances and there was lots of things that we can build on from the performance.
“Of course the frustration is conceding two goals from hopeful balls that ricochet around in our box, but beyond that there’s so many positives that we can take from the performance. Of course, only a point and we would have loved to have given the supporters the victory, but I think the team can certainly take a lot from that game.”
Canaries manager Jonathan Wagner admitted his side were a touch fortunate not to be losing the break, saying: “We have been so clinical at home and I think that’s a 3-0 performance in the first half if I’m honest and we go in at 1-1. The goals we gave away were disappointing, it’s two moments of concentration in our penalty box and a little bit of fortune in both which can happen.”
Mr Wagner was unsurprised at how the game had panned out. He said: “It was exciting and more or less what you expect, what you like to have… a lot of battles, a lot of energy.
“Obviously if you can’t win it you make sure you can’t lose it and this is what the players have done. We take this point.”
