Bath Rugby Welcome At The Rec!

By Glen Leat
July 18 2003

After the hot sultry weather of recent weeks we get hit by rain and wind, you could almost believe it is the rugby season. Unfortunately it isn't but to give you a fix of that rugby feeling we have invited our old friend Harley Quin back once again for his comments on the past week. Over to you HQ..

* Well, well,well, what a surprise Bath Rugby have decided not to pursue the option of a new enclosed stadium at The Rec. Instead they will now tackle the idea of a horseshoe ground in the hope it will satisfy everyone. Well I know one bloke it won't satisfy - me! Why? Because we all know a horseshoe is unlucky and we need all the luck we can get: the last thing we need is an unlucky ground. I was looking forward to a massive carbuncle of a ground so that the next time Prince Charles was in town he could have a whinge about such a monstrosity spoiling the balance between "proper" architecture and nature: well it looks as though there will be plenty of grass for the heir to the throne to chat to when his boys drag him down the A46 to watch the Bath versus Gloucester match.

What really confused me as I read the Bath Chronicle article about the ground on Friday night was the comments of one local resident who has campaigned against Bath Rugby being at The Rec when he commented that had Bath Rugby opted for this proposal originally everyone would have been content and Bath Rugby would stand a good chance of succeeding with this idea.Have I missed something here, didn't the local residents campaign for Bath Rugby to be moved from The Rec and cast aside from the "lungs of the City"? Have I been living in a parallel universe where "Get off The Rec" actually means "Stay on The Rec"? Well by this token perhaps we actually won the league last year, Stuart Barnes has lost 15 years and 3 stones and is gagging to play for Bath and my season ticket has gone down in price for the third year in a row!

* What about George Best back on the pop. I've always been a fan of the ex-Man Utd star but in recent months have gone off him as I read the rubbish he writes in the Mail on Sunday - talk about holier than thou! Each week he slags off various well known personalities and politicians without fully understanding (or caring) what drove them to do what they do. Perhaps instead of his photo at the top of the page this week there should be a picture of some pots and kettles. I did manage a smile when he bought his wife a new Merc to say sorry for all the trouble he'd caused; my missus is lucky to get a cup of tea as a peace offering!

* So the Welsh Rugby Union is applying to the Lottery to help fund it's youth academies. What does that mean, do all the Welsh players each have to buy a Lotto ticket and a scratchcard each Saturday and then have to watch Dale Winton to see if Welsh rugby has a future? Do they have to go on the tele to play the ludicrously inane games that accompany the Lottery programmes to try and raise some interest in this lost gambling format? You know you are in trouble when the only thing that can get you out of a hole is funding from a national institution that's losing as many players each week as Bristol lost supporters over the last decade. Now there's a thought! Why not scrap the Lottery balls with numbers on them and instead give a unique number to each of theBristol supporters and the first six who turn up each Saturday create the winning line. Mind you couldn't use this format for Bingo because you'd struggle to find 100 turning up!!!!

* I see on the Jonny Wilkinson BBC website that he says that Mike Tindall is usually the first up on the England Team karaoke machine after matches singing something by Nelly. Would that be Dame Nelly Melba he's on about and if so what is Tinds doing listening to classic Australian opera?

* Can someone tell me when the country of Niger (with a hard g) became the French sounding Niger (with a soft g)? When I was at school we were told it was Niger as in the first part of Nigeria. Perhaps my geography teacher was thick. It's the same with Monaco: as a kid we always called it Mon-ac-o where as today it's known as Monaco, when did that change? Mind you I was similarly surprised to see someone on the Messageboard say they support Bath but refer to it as Barf - sounds like a Brizzler in disguise to me pretending he is a chosen one like the rest of us.

See you soon.