By Dave White (Landlubber)
March 23 2017

Big Shout of thanks to Dave White (Landlubber) for putting pen to paper and sending in a story  

Harlequins 2005!

So who else made the journey to Twickenham Stoop on a bitterly cold and frosty November evening in 2005? I did and my backside was frozen by the end of the game from the frosty seat I had at the very end of the Lexus stand!

After a pleasant but uneventful journey, up from Kernow on the supporters coach, we debarked once parked up in the Chertsey road parking area. From there we could see the stadium well illuminated by the brilliant floodlights and, as we walked to the stadium, we could see that the Sky Sports team were there to cover the match. I was carrying my St Pirran Flag with me and, owing to this, was asked to give an interview for the cameras by a very pretty Sky reporter (might have been Jackie Beltreo nee Leavy) and was asked who was a Pirate player to watch out for. I answered that for his speed and tenacity Rhodri Mcatee – imagine my thoughts when I discovered he wasn’t on the teamsheet that night! Didn’t need to worry though as there wasn’t even a mention of the match, apart from the score, when the programme went out so my error went un-noticed, ha ha!

The result is well known but the main memories I have (apart from the bum-numbing cold) were the amount of Pirates fans there out cheering the Quins fans, a stretcher being used to carry off a badly injured Quins player and Heino being yellow carded seconds after coming on for a scrummaging infringement! Oh and the astronomically priced burgers, bleddy hell they were some pricey!

Despite the drubbing we received we still more than held our own for the first 60 odd minutes and it was only fitness (plus Heinos 10 minutes enforced rest) that meant we conceded so many Quin flattering points towards the end and we all went home happy that the difference in standard wasn’t that much.

In March 2006 we had the return game at Kenwyn Park and once again the difference in standards showed as we lost yet again but, going by the way the Quins players celebrated by diving and sliding in the mud by the entrance to the pitch showed to me that they were relieved to have beaten us. A glowing tribute to the effort put in by our guys (an ethos that remains even today). I know it was the 26^th March as that is my (and Laurie McGlone’s) birthday and I left having enjoyed another great game of rugby.

Oh, and a couple more memories of my trip to London – having a chat with World Cup Winner Will Greenwood after the game, a lovely man who took time to chat and said how impressed he was with the Pirates fans and our cheering non-stop and, secondly, being present in the Stoops record crowd – surpassing that of even when they were in the Premiership. Makes me proud to be a Pirate!