Yesterday we walked out of our door to run straight into about twenty police officers in riot gear standing around the back entrance of a nearby pub. Around the front of the pub were another large group of police officers. It reminded us of South Korea, when we saw hundreds of riot officers on the street. There were also patrols driving around the city, and helicopters. Apparently South Yorkshire policemen were not allowed to take annual leave yesterday. The reason behind this was that Sheffield's two football (soccer) teams were playing each other yesterday. In the past this has led to rioting and fights.

From an internet search, it seems like the pub up the road is well known as a pub for fans of Sheffield Wednesday. I guess they wanted to make sure there weren't any fights before the game. The end result was the Sheffield United beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0, and there weren't any riots or anything that we saw.