By BrianC
March 13 2006

Yet again after a Saint Patrick's game I find myself with mixed emotions. Saturday was for me a fantastic day in the company of wonderful people and great craic.

It's such a shame that what happened on field took the edge off the day. The match report is in the hands of another so I won't dwell that aspect of the event.

First of all I have to say credit where it is due. The both the location and layout of the 'village' were spot on. This year it had been moved from the car park in front of the Megastore to one of the larger gravel ones a bit further out. This greatly increased the available space.

It has taken many years to get there but at last we saw the bars and catering far removed from the stage. The location of the outlets was spot on, well done those who listened to the advice given and acted on it. I have seen some complaints on the board about how long it took to get served, indeed I myself gave up queuing at the Guinness bar for that very reason but in general things were very well run.

One point I will raise is about the shop and I will stress that this is primarily an observation rather than a major criticism. In the run up to the game there were conflicting statements from the club about its opening time. One said that it would open at 9.00am, the other 1.00pm. As it happened the latter was the case, it was immediately heaving. To my mind this is too late an opening time for such a big day, I got to the stadium around 11.00am by which time there were plenty of people around who would happily have been separated from their money.

The day itself started as such days do, my time pre-match was mostly spent between the hotel bar, various car park gatherings and the village. The atmosphere in the village was fantastic, this event is turning into a real rugby festival. It was very noticeable to me that there were a good number of supporters from clubs other than ours and Gloucester in the crowd, Wasps shirts in particular were in evidence.

One abiding memory for me will be the site of Eek the Weeble, resplendent in tutu, collecting for the tsunami appeal. Everywhere I looked he had attractive women hanging off his arms. That tutu must be a real babe magnet. Of all the coin-laden buckets I saw that day his was the fullest.

The game came and went, 'nuff said.

Post match the village was again rocking. I have heard mixed reports about the performances of The Commitments and Utter Madness but they looked and sounded ok to me. Le Cheile were their usual wonderful selves. At the risk of repeating myself I would have loved to see the Gagging Ferrets up there.

I don't know if it was the result and it's implications or the fact that we were losing an hour and that it was Easter Sunday the next day but as the night drew on things seemed a bit flatter in the hotel than in previous years. When I hit the sack at an unusually early 1am there were not that many left in the bar.

Whatever criticisms we may have of our club they deserve the fullest credit for conceiving, developing and staging this day. It was, as we have come to expect, a very special one.