Well we are finally hitting the heights as the season continued on an ever increasing upward curve after the 30-17, technical knockout, two falls and a submission victory over Gloucester at the Gardens on Saturday.
It was a game that had just about everything but the kitchen sink (although if Glos could have found one I’m sure they would have chucked it at Shane Drahm).
As Jimmy Greaves might have said a decade ago ‘It was a game of two halves Saints’. The first we played some great creative rugby really taking it to Glos from the off. The second we defended like demons.
Now I’m pretty sure the news from the Gloucester Friday evening newspaper had reached Saintly ears by Saturday morning given the way the first try was scored. Andy Hazell had been crowing in print about how he and his teammates were coming to the Gardens to ‘push the Saints all over the park’. Well not quite Andy mate! The Saints pack scored a peach of a try from a driving maul through Chris Budgen (now sponsored by ComeOnYouSaints.Com) that, for want of a better phrase, proved that they really don’t like it up em!
I don’t think I have ever seen the forwards celebrate a try with such enthusiasm before and the crowd almost raised the roof but were only just warming up for what was to come.
You can read the whys and wherefores of the brawl elsewhere and no doubt will for weeks to come but, though not condoning violence on the pitch, I really though it was a defining moment for our team. One in all in, everyone there to help his fellow Saint. As a unit I think all the lads took a step forward and grew as a squad.
The sending off of Sharky Robinson just bonded that Gold Black n Green resolve further and a rearguard action in the second half kept Gloucester at bay by hook or by crook as the clock wound down.
Now I don’t want to get all Shakespearian on you but I know the squad are keen to foster the Band of Brothers tag, well this was true Agincourt stuff with our heavily outnumbered troops using superior guile and wit to steal the day. As Bill the Bard said ‘we'll remember, with advantages, what feats we did that day’. I’m sure many of the team on Saturday will. There is talk already from some fans of that rolling maul having started outside the county boundaries but who would begrudge the players a few embellishments on the truth as the years go by after Saturdays performance?
The Gardens crowd of course played a major part in the victory too. At the end of eighty minutes the rounds of ‘Oh Wendys’ were probably the loudest in the last few seasons with everyone out their seats to celebrate a great victory.
‘Hurricane’ Blowers, who got a standing ovation for getting a yellow card (it was that kind of day) later went out of his way to praise the Franklins Faithful, top man. All in all it was one of the all time great memorable days at the Gardens. And all this on All Saints Day too! I’m starting to think someone up there likes us?
LOOKING AHEAD
On Saturday it’s once more unto the breach dear friends, once more with the trip to Harlequins. The fancy dans of the English game have gone through somewhat of an image change in recent years. Gone are the days when a Quins score was greeted by a smattering of polite applause from their blazered members. Now they have their very own set of ‘elite’ supporters, the Diamond Geezers, who have actually been known to cheer the odd try or two. You may have seen them in their multicheck trousers (looking somewhat like escapees from the Crossroad Motel kitchens) but they do add to the occasion and seeing as Quins have the second best bar in the league, and a team going well, it should be a good day out. The Saints Supporters Club are running coaches to the Stoop leaving the Gardens (from the VIP car park) at 11:30am, prices are, Adults: £11, Children/Students/OAPs: £7. Call Jean Collingwood on 01604 583283 for details. For those travelling by train be warned that after eight in the evening it is buses on the route north from Euston. The alternate route changing at Watford and Willseden looks the better and quicker option. See you there!
MORE ON EDGAR MOBBS
I got more feedback on last weeks article on Edgar Mobbs than any other I have written for the Chron. It seems he is still a very popular figure at the club which got me thinking, why isn’t there a permanent memorial to probably one of the greatest Saints at the club? Now I know in their time Messrs Sturtridge, Gordon and Rodber did sterling service for the club but surely there should be something of a more permanent nature at the Gardens to a man that Captained both Saints and England then gave his life for his country? Yes there’s the once a year game against the BaaBaas and the memorial in town but wouldn’t something more concrete in Edgar Mobbs name at the Gardens just add more to the club itself. Perhaps a renaming of the South Stand to the Mobbs if it is not getting a sponsor or maybe even a fund where we could all contribute so a permanent statue could be erected to the great man whilst not taking anything away from the focus and importance of the main pitch side war memorial itself. I would be interested to hear your views on this.
BLACK GREEN AND GOLD
A reader pulled me up last week for calling our colours Gold Black and Green rather than the carved in stone Black Green and Gold. Now I can assure you all it was no mistake or indeed no intended insult to tradition (perish the thought) but being a child of the Gordon Terrace the former is always the one that sticks in my mind from ‘We all follow the Gold Black and
Green’, to the tune of Yellow Submarine, from the old GT choir and although I know I’ll pay the price in the afterlife that’s the ways its going to stay, sorry folks. While on the subject of songs its good to hear a few variants coming into to play from various parts of the ground but don’t you think that signing ‘Are you Leicester in disguise?’ to Gloucester on Saturday was just a touch cruel?
No me neither!
.
As Jimmy Greaves might have said a decade ago ‘It was a game of two halves Saints’. The first we played some great creative rugby really taking it to Glos from the off. The second we defended like demons.
Now I’m pretty sure the news from the Gloucester Friday evening newspaper had reached Saintly ears by Saturday morning given the way the first try was scored. Andy Hazell had been crowing in print about how he and his teammates were coming to the Gardens to ‘push the Saints all over the park’. Well not quite Andy mate! The Saints pack scored a peach of a try from a driving maul through Chris Budgen (now sponsored by ComeOnYouSaints.Com) that, for want of a better phrase, proved that they really don’t like it up em!
I don’t think I have ever seen the forwards celebrate a try with such enthusiasm before and the crowd almost raised the roof but were only just warming up for what was to come.
You can read the whys and wherefores of the brawl elsewhere and no doubt will for weeks to come but, though not condoning violence on the pitch, I really though it was a defining moment for our team. One in all in, everyone there to help his fellow Saint. As a unit I think all the lads took a step forward and grew as a squad.
The sending off of Sharky Robinson just bonded that Gold Black n Green resolve further and a rearguard action in the second half kept Gloucester at bay by hook or by crook as the clock wound down.
Now I don’t want to get all Shakespearian on you but I know the squad are keen to foster the Band of Brothers tag, well this was true Agincourt stuff with our heavily outnumbered troops using superior guile and wit to steal the day. As Bill the Bard said ‘we'll remember, with advantages, what feats we did that day’. I’m sure many of the team on Saturday will. There is talk already from some fans of that rolling maul having started outside the county boundaries but who would begrudge the players a few embellishments on the truth as the years go by after Saturdays performance?
The Gardens crowd of course played a major part in the victory too. At the end of eighty minutes the rounds of ‘Oh Wendys’ were probably the loudest in the last few seasons with everyone out their seats to celebrate a great victory.
‘Hurricane’ Blowers, who got a standing ovation for getting a yellow card (it was that kind of day) later went out of his way to praise the Franklins Faithful, top man. All in all it was one of the all time great memorable days at the Gardens. And all this on All Saints Day too! I’m starting to think someone up there likes us?
LOOKING AHEAD
On Saturday it’s once more unto the breach dear friends, once more with the trip to Harlequins. The fancy dans of the English game have gone through somewhat of an image change in recent years. Gone are the days when a Quins score was greeted by a smattering of polite applause from their blazered members. Now they have their very own set of ‘elite’ supporters, the Diamond Geezers, who have actually been known to cheer the odd try or two. You may have seen them in their multicheck trousers (looking somewhat like escapees from the Crossroad Motel kitchens) but they do add to the occasion and seeing as Quins have the second best bar in the league, and a team going well, it should be a good day out. The Saints Supporters Club are running coaches to the Stoop leaving the Gardens (from the VIP car park) at 11:30am, prices are, Adults: £11, Children/Students/OAPs: £7. Call Jean Collingwood on 01604 583283 for details. For those travelling by train be warned that after eight in the evening it is buses on the route north from Euston. The alternate route changing at Watford and Willseden looks the better and quicker option. See you there!
MORE ON EDGAR MOBBS
I got more feedback on last weeks article on Edgar Mobbs than any other I have written for the Chron. It seems he is still a very popular figure at the club which got me thinking, why isn’t there a permanent memorial to probably one of the greatest Saints at the club? Now I know in their time Messrs Sturtridge, Gordon and Rodber did sterling service for the club but surely there should be something of a more permanent nature at the Gardens to a man that Captained both Saints and England then gave his life for his country? Yes there’s the once a year game against the BaaBaas and the memorial in town but wouldn’t something more concrete in Edgar Mobbs name at the Gardens just add more to the club itself. Perhaps a renaming of the South Stand to the Mobbs if it is not getting a sponsor or maybe even a fund where we could all contribute so a permanent statue could be erected to the great man whilst not taking anything away from the focus and importance of the main pitch side war memorial itself. I would be interested to hear your views on this.
BLACK GREEN AND GOLD
A reader pulled me up last week for calling our colours Gold Black and Green rather than the carved in stone Black Green and Gold. Now I can assure you all it was no mistake or indeed no intended insult to tradition (perish the thought) but being a child of the Gordon Terrace the former is always the one that sticks in my mind from ‘We all follow the Gold Black and
Green’, to the tune of Yellow Submarine, from the old GT choir and although I know I’ll pay the price in the afterlife that’s the ways its going to stay, sorry folks. While on the subject of songs its good to hear a few variants coming into to play from various parts of the ground but don’t you think that signing ‘Are you Leicester in disguise?’ to Gloucester on Saturday was just a touch cruel?
No me neither!
.
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