Has Anyone Seen My Voice? - Parma Craic Report

By BrianC
January 16 2006

So said Andy the hat on Saturday morning, long before we even got close to seeing a rugby game. Our match in Parma, the first competitive tour game outside France for many years, was always going to be a big one.

The proof was there on Friday night at Le Bistro which was packed with LI supporters whilst the restaurants on either side of it were quiet. As with all tour reports this is subjective. Everyone on tour has a different set of experiences. I can only try to give you a flavour of what happened. Others will, no doubt, report things that totally missed my radar screen.

For me the first real clue that this was to be a different tour was the breathtaking view of first the Alps then the Italian lakes as our plane made it's way into Milan Malpensa. I should say at this stage that whatever the bad press this airport got in advance on the messageboard it worked for us. Flights were on time, the shuttle bus to and from Central station was reasonably priced, comfortable and efficient. Those of our family traveling from Gatwick, regardless of their destination airport, had an altogether different experience. A computer failure meant that all flights had to be checked in by hand, most were delayed by about two hours.

Anyhar, I digress. For most, myself included, the trip to Parma was painless. I was very glad that I had chosen a central hotel, I could see it the second I stepped out of Parma station. Many people were based in hotels quite a bit out from the center. My experience from Auch taught me that, particularly on tour, this has many disadvantages. The ability just to pop back to the hotel room, be it to pick up something you have forgotten or to rest for an hour, is priceless.

Friday night was like many first night of tour nights. Singing, dancing, drinking until the wee small hours of the morning... many of you know the score. Our HQ was a bar come restaurant on the towns main square, Le Bistro on Piazza Garibaldi. I will at this stage say a word of thanks to Cooperman and all the staff there. They were ready for us in no uncertain terms. There was a 100 seat marquee out front, adorned with LI flags and posters. The LI cd's were played at full blast throughout the weekend. There was excellent Guinness on tap as well as all the usual drinks and the food, given the logistics and reasonable price, was more than acceptable. Perhaps above all the owners and staff entered into the spirit of the occasion, smiles were abundant.

I will at this stage confess that I chickened out early on Friday night. Aware that Saturday was to be a long day and not having the stamina that I did some twenty years ago we hit the sack around 11.30. The next morning I learnt that the party had gone on until 3 a.m. It must have been somewhere between those two times that Andy the hat, somewhat carelessly it has to be said, lost his voice.

Saturday came and with it the first chance for me, and I assume many others, to take in just what a beautiful town Parma is. With my wig on we hit the town. On Saturday morning there is a large, sprawling market. Here we purchased the obligatory ham and cheese. One of the joys of Parma is that the central area is closed to pretty well all traffic. It is so much nicer walking around such a town than the ones we are used to in the UK.

The biggest concern of the morning was 'Would there be a game?' The temperature the previous night had plummeted to -16c. The pitch was rock hard and stories emerged of the good people of Overmach Parma RFC complete with heated plastic tent trying frantically to make the pitch playable. We popped in to Le Bistro for a quick drink then, in an urgent search for some pre-match stomach lining, to what turned out to be a fantastic restaurant, La Grepella, where we had some of the finest home made pasta I have ever enjoyed.

My co-ed Griff is doing the match report so I will leave the details to him. Suffice it to say that the stadium is about 15 minutes walk from the center of town, up to the station and turn left. It's probably about the size of Sunbury. There was a (pretty well empty) stand with plastic seats on one side and a bigger one - think Sunbury, wider but less tall - with concrete seating on the other. Here is where all the supporters, local and visiting, were based.

It was quite a sight to see. I would say that we had about two thirds of the crowd there. This has since been announced as 1000 or 1100 depending on who you read so we can read from this that there were 600-700 traveling supporters. Without question this was our biggest ever overseas tour. To say the stand was painted green is an understatement. Balloons everywhere, the drum corps, wigs and boas, the lot! One welcome new addition was a clutch of the oddshapedballs crew, resplendent in their pretty green party frocks. The atmosphere was, quite simply fantastic. For me the sweetest moment was at the end of the game when the traveling support stood as one to applaud the Parma team and supporters. They were quite taken aback by it.

After the game we headed towards the small tent that was working as a bar, shop and hospitality area for the players and officials. Perhaps it is best we did this as unbeknown to us at the time, at the station which was no more than five minutes walk away, there was a full scale riot going on. CS gas, weapons, stones, the lot, between 1300 passing football supporters and the Parma carabanieri. Whilst we painted the town green they were pelting it with stones freshly collected from the railway tracks. For many of us the first and only inclination of this was on the walk back to town, past the police barricades and over the rubbish strewn streets.

Saturday night was, if anything, a bit of an anti-climax. Le Bistro was busy. The wine and the song was good. To me, however, it felt a bit subdued. I don't know if that was the exertions of the previous night, the disappointing game, the bitterly cold weather, having to listen to Italian politicians drone on before the Olympic flame was lit or the failure of the team to show up (as promised). Perhaps it was a combination of all these things.

Please don't let my last paragraph give you anything other than a positive feeling about this tour. It was very special. A chance to meet old friends and new. A competitive game of rugby in one of Europe's prettiest towns amongst an incredibly friendly bunch of supporters. I'll go back there any time.