Post by chrish on Nov 15, 2009 23:17:02 GMT
Well today was Egg Chasing Sunday. I had a quick look on the BBC fixture list and I saw that the only football on was Southampton V Brighton and a load of women's football matches so I switched to the Rugby Union and saw that Wasps were playing Gloucester at Adams Park which is only about 25 miles away from Ealing. I bought a ticket on the internet. £15 quid to stand, plus £1.50 booking fee? I mean wft? I made the booking myself. Surely I'm entitled to at least a quid of that!
Anyway I got to car park near the ground and parked for a fiver. I've been to three Wycombe V Torquay games over the years so I decided to park at the bottom car park. Always a winner when you're trying to get away. This plan backfired later.
Adams Park is a very different place when there's a rugby match on. It's all nice, neat and a bit sanitised like a Waitrose or a John Lewis. There's lots of inflatable attractions for the kids, happy smiling stewards, the beer tents are all open and staffed by cleancut harry potter types (rather the usual oiks we get) and there's a few extra food outlets selling such delights as Hog Roasts, Divine Sausages and Divine "Gourmet" Beef Burgers with a Divine Coffee trailer selling these new fangled designer type coffees like Latte and Campuchino! In addtional the car park is full of BMW X5s and X6s (think a fat bloated Mazda 323 on anabolic steriods), Porsche Cayennes and Audi Estates. Everybody was nicely behaved. I didn't hear one swear word all afternoon. Not one. Not even an ironic "buggery bollocks" from some chinless wonder. There were a few rather unwashed looking Gloucester types who looked like they might have been distant relatives of Fred and Rose at 25, Cromwell Street.
Anyway after a pint of IPA I wandered into the opposite end of the ground than I normally frequent. Adams Park is quite a nice little ground really. The double-tiered Frank Adams stand is quite impressive. The home terracing is quite steep so the views are good and the home toilets even have a bit of carpet in the entrance corridor!
The lack of atmosphere evident outside continued inside. Wasps fans did a couple of "Oggy, Oggy, Oggy, Wasps, Wasps, Wasps" chants with the vigour of a bored Boy Scout and then the PA was cranked up to the max. When there's a line out in favour of the home team near the try line they blast out the clapping on Queen's "We will rock you" and the drones shout out "Wasps"! Stirring stuff
Having said that the game was a good one. The Gloucester front five controlled the scrum, there back row were mobile and incisive, and the backs made ground. Wasps got an early penalty and went 3-0 up. Then Gloucester got a try they really deserved through their impressive fly half, a young lad called Freddie Burns who also converted to put Gloucester 7-3 up. Wasps continued to be error prone in possession but stoic in defence and they managed to hold out until half time. England and British Lions lock Simon Shaw is an absolute man mountain.
Gloucester then doubled their points tally barely seconds into the second half. A hopeful boot deep into Wasps half was completely ballsed up by the Wasps fullback and Freddie Burns took full advantage and scored underneath the posts. He then converted and Wasps were hanging on for dear life. They brought on England Saxon's scrum half Joe Simpson and Gloucester had to replace young Burns with 34 year old Kiwi magician Carlos Spencer. Back in 2003 this was the bloke who decided to showboat against the Aussies in the semi final of the world cup rather than make sure of the points. It took him about 4 minutes to do the same for Gloucester. He took a high ball, side stepped the onrushing Wasps player and then tried to do a Martin Offiah style charge only to be caught by a prop! The ball broke left and Tom Varndell hit the afterburners and outpaced 3 Gloucester players to touch down in the corner.
Joe Simpson then scored a second try taking advantage of a quick tap and a sleeping Gloucester defence. Simpson must be knocking on the door of an full England call up. Pacey, quick around the ruck and he's not afraid to make incisive breaks. He reminds me a little of Matt Dawson. The fact he got man of the match for only 31 minutes work says it all. Dave Walder added two penalties and Wasps won 21-14.
I decided to make a break for it with 3 minutes to go. I thought it would be wise not to hang around. But when I got back to the car park we were completely blocked in. The car park attendees had obviously decided to create a new world record in trying to fit in the most number of cars. So I had to wait another 25 minutes!
All in all quite an enjoyable afternoon. It does really annoy me that Rugby crowds are welcomed with open arms and encouraged to stay after the game but us football fans are usually given the cold shoulder. I get the impression that Wasps and Wycombe Wanderers use the same stewards. When I asked a steward where I could pick up my ticket he said "just down there Sir, its a small cabin we usually use for the football matches". When I entered the ground I was fully expected the steward to search my bag but he just said "hello".
Anyway a few pictures....I even remembered to reset the ISO today. So they look a bit clearer!
Allez les Wasps?
Simon Shaw in the foreground. Makes The Bevanator look like a midget!
Carlos Spencer
Anyway I got to car park near the ground and parked for a fiver. I've been to three Wycombe V Torquay games over the years so I decided to park at the bottom car park. Always a winner when you're trying to get away. This plan backfired later.
Adams Park is a very different place when there's a rugby match on. It's all nice, neat and a bit sanitised like a Waitrose or a John Lewis. There's lots of inflatable attractions for the kids, happy smiling stewards, the beer tents are all open and staffed by cleancut harry potter types (rather the usual oiks we get) and there's a few extra food outlets selling such delights as Hog Roasts, Divine Sausages and Divine "Gourmet" Beef Burgers with a Divine Coffee trailer selling these new fangled designer type coffees like Latte and Campuchino! In addtional the car park is full of BMW X5s and X6s (think a fat bloated Mazda 323 on anabolic steriods), Porsche Cayennes and Audi Estates. Everybody was nicely behaved. I didn't hear one swear word all afternoon. Not one. Not even an ironic "buggery bollocks" from some chinless wonder. There were a few rather unwashed looking Gloucester types who looked like they might have been distant relatives of Fred and Rose at 25, Cromwell Street.
Anyway after a pint of IPA I wandered into the opposite end of the ground than I normally frequent. Adams Park is quite a nice little ground really. The double-tiered Frank Adams stand is quite impressive. The home terracing is quite steep so the views are good and the home toilets even have a bit of carpet in the entrance corridor!
The lack of atmosphere evident outside continued inside. Wasps fans did a couple of "Oggy, Oggy, Oggy, Wasps, Wasps, Wasps" chants with the vigour of a bored Boy Scout and then the PA was cranked up to the max. When there's a line out in favour of the home team near the try line they blast out the clapping on Queen's "We will rock you" and the drones shout out "Wasps"! Stirring stuff
Having said that the game was a good one. The Gloucester front five controlled the scrum, there back row were mobile and incisive, and the backs made ground. Wasps got an early penalty and went 3-0 up. Then Gloucester got a try they really deserved through their impressive fly half, a young lad called Freddie Burns who also converted to put Gloucester 7-3 up. Wasps continued to be error prone in possession but stoic in defence and they managed to hold out until half time. England and British Lions lock Simon Shaw is an absolute man mountain.
Gloucester then doubled their points tally barely seconds into the second half. A hopeful boot deep into Wasps half was completely ballsed up by the Wasps fullback and Freddie Burns took full advantage and scored underneath the posts. He then converted and Wasps were hanging on for dear life. They brought on England Saxon's scrum half Joe Simpson and Gloucester had to replace young Burns with 34 year old Kiwi magician Carlos Spencer. Back in 2003 this was the bloke who decided to showboat against the Aussies in the semi final of the world cup rather than make sure of the points. It took him about 4 minutes to do the same for Gloucester. He took a high ball, side stepped the onrushing Wasps player and then tried to do a Martin Offiah style charge only to be caught by a prop! The ball broke left and Tom Varndell hit the afterburners and outpaced 3 Gloucester players to touch down in the corner.
Joe Simpson then scored a second try taking advantage of a quick tap and a sleeping Gloucester defence. Simpson must be knocking on the door of an full England call up. Pacey, quick around the ruck and he's not afraid to make incisive breaks. He reminds me a little of Matt Dawson. The fact he got man of the match for only 31 minutes work says it all. Dave Walder added two penalties and Wasps won 21-14.
I decided to make a break for it with 3 minutes to go. I thought it would be wise not to hang around. But when I got back to the car park we were completely blocked in. The car park attendees had obviously decided to create a new world record in trying to fit in the most number of cars. So I had to wait another 25 minutes!
All in all quite an enjoyable afternoon. It does really annoy me that Rugby crowds are welcomed with open arms and encouraged to stay after the game but us football fans are usually given the cold shoulder. I get the impression that Wasps and Wycombe Wanderers use the same stewards. When I asked a steward where I could pick up my ticket he said "just down there Sir, its a small cabin we usually use for the football matches". When I entered the ground I was fully expected the steward to search my bag but he just said "hello".
Anyway a few pictures....I even remembered to reset the ISO today. So they look a bit clearer!
Allez les Wasps?
Simon Shaw in the foreground. Makes The Bevanator look like a midget!
Carlos Spencer
