Northampton Saints
Sponsors' Lunch Report
By Russ C
November 2 2010
The COYSDCers all arrived by 12:15pm, introduced ourselves and got the first round of beers in. We had a table for the four of us from COYSDC , a good group of people, all rugby fans not corporate johnnies. (As an aside, I once watched a match from a hostility box where, as the match kicked off, the bloke next to me asked, “so is it 13 or 15 a side in this game? And you can’t throw it forward, yes?” None of that this time).
SPONSORS LUNCH REPORT
STURTRIDGE SUITE
SAINTS Vs NEWCASTLE FALCONS Saturday, 30th October 2010
Warning - This report is not about rugby – just four blokes on a balcony
Dinner was served about 1pm and as a vegetarian I can’t compliment the chef enough. I even had a choice of starter. So often at these sort of things the veg meals are dire but as a rule if the veg meal is good then so are the meat ones. You’ll have to check with the others for confirmation of that though.
After lunch Euan Murray and Jo Ford appeared to do an interview. The condensed version of the these was that, yes Euan is not happy losing his place to Brian and is working hard to get it back. He’s also looking forward to trashing anyone who’s not wearing a Scottish shirt in the 6N. He did seem a bit frustrated though and I wouldn’t want to be up against him in the next match he plays.
Jo Ford seemed like a nice bloke. He spoke about his hopes of getting a start during the LV Cup and getting a bit of a kicking when he returned to Leeds with the Wanderers last week but we got the result so he didn’t care. I’m not sure who did the interviews, haven’t seen him before, but he didn’t have the relaxed style of Lenny so it seemed a bit “strained” I thought.
2:30 – kick off. The game’s been discussed and described by others more knowledgeable than me so I’ll just say it was weird watching the game from a) high up and b) behind the posts rather than my usual spot on the B block terrace and Dickson’s try happened right in front of us and there was no blocking just a couple of Northerners running into each other. Top try!
David, Chris, Nigel and myself did try to get some singing going from the balcony but it was it bit in vain. We got a couple of strange looks but hey, that’s what happens when you let the oiks in the posh seats. There was a couple of guys behind me that seemed to spend the entire game bitching about their office politics. Some people just don’t know how to enjoy themselves.
I should say at this point that the really, really good thing about being up on the balcony is close proximity of the bar. This allows someone like me, who will usually not drink during the game, to indulge himself maybe just a tad too much. Not loads, not excessively, just a tad.
After the Downey’s try, the closest thing you get to an own goal in rugby, and the end of the game we went back inside for tea and cakes. Well a cake. A very small cake. No tea. Just beer. Could have done with more cake.
We then had the results of the quiz that had been given out before lunch and I’m afraid have to report that the COYSDC team failed to take the prize. I myself take some responsibility for this as I know nothing about cricket, can’t remember dates and am generally rubbish at quizzes. After that there was another brief interview with Euan and Joe of “the didn’t the lads do well” type and an introduction of a group of Saint’s forwards from the 1980’s who I have to admit I knew 
nothing about and still don’t except for the fact the forwards don’t seem to get any smaller once they retire.
And that was it. Someone turned up and said the bar closes in 5 minutes, hope you had a good afternoon lads. Myself and Nigel had expected it to go on a little longer to be honest but at least I live in Northampton and didn’t have to wait an hour and half for the train I’d booked.
I last went to one of these sort of doo’s quite a few years ago the website was sponsoring Chris Budgen. That one was in the evening I think and we had dinner with a couple of representatives of the club, (Rob Hunter and James Cannon), and then there was a sponsored players shirt presentation after dinner. Being an afternoon one this was a bit different. I was a little disappointed with the lack of players in attendance. I had hoped to meet James Ingle and have a little chat with him on behalf of the website but that didn’t happen. Joe and Euan had disappeared by the time I’d eaten my cake so all I can report is that I had a great time, the rugby was excellent, Chris has got the biggest lens of anyone I have ever met, I got to put faces to couple of names and hopefully made some new friends in the process and also, £3.30 is a hell of a lot to charge for a pint of London Pride.
Russ C.
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Saint til I die
Top of the League 2014-2015 Season
The experience of watching from end on was also a novelty for me, although I did spend the thick end of two seasons in the south stand when it first opened around 2002 - I must say I prefer the view from the tetleys near the 10m line, sturtridge end.
I made the mistake of being the last of the quartet to have a cake with my coffee (as opposed to beer!!) and it was the runt of the litter, being only about a half of the paper case.
I'd assumed that there would be a lot more post match and hadn't booked a train until 6.50. The others decided to retire to the more familiar surroundings of the Rodbar but I stayed until the bitter end and was the last to leave the lounge, at half time in the Glaws / Tigs match which had been left on the tv, to the general indifference of the majority of the corporates.
I had offered to leave when I realised everyone else had departed, but the staff allowed me to remain while they cashed up etc and even offered to sell me another drink, so I believe the "closing in 5 mins" may have been a wind up.
All in all, a good day, good company and an interesting experience for a once in a while treat, but definitely not the way I'd like to have the "matchday experience" all the time
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