ST. MARY’S, Isles of Scilly — There is about an hour to go and much to do before kickoff when the players begin to arrive, bleary-eyed and heavy-legged, squinting in the cold sunlight.
The night before was a late night. Hugh Town, the village of a thousand souls that serves as the capital of St. Mary’s, the largest of the Isles of Scilly, is a bustling place in summer, its population swollen by the throngs of tourists who descend on this archipelago off the southwestern tip of England, 30 miles or so out into the Atlantic.
It dozes for much of the winter, but last night was a rare exception.