Lowly Falcons down Harlequins
By Leipziger
March 5 2011
…so said the headline on teletext last night. Might not be a nice one for us but it’s accurate, and after a second half performance like last night’s, who cares anyway?
Now until, well, yesterday morning actually, it was up in the air whether I’d get to the game last night. My gaffer hadn’t been too happy with me leaving work early for the Exeter home match, as it meant he had to do slightly more work for a small report that is sent after I finish, and he was off yesterday.
To add to that, I had a big report to do, and I had to do the small report for 5pm. I could do the work on the train but the wifi on there is unreliable, as is my computer. The CEO offered to lend me a wifi dongle I could use with a work laptop, but on Wednesday night I couldn’t get it to work outside of the office.
After installing some software at work on Thursday, it finally started behaving later in the evening, and worked fine on the train to work yesterday morning. Get in!
Anyway, I managed to get me work done on the company laptop, although my e-mail wouldn’t work so I had to Hotmail the last report to the CEO and ask him to send it to the client. Thankfully I’d sent the big report before I left the office! He did, and all’s well that ends well.
Although the game didn’t start too well, Tom Williams scored within the first few minutes on the right, made by an impressive dummy by another Quins back that you just had to applaud. Rory Clegg converted, and before Leeds the Falcons might well have collapsed after this. However Jimmy Gopperth kicked a penalty soon afterward.
A scuffle had followed Williams’ try and Jon Golding and James Johnston were both yellow-carded following a scrum. Just before they came back on Ceri Jones was sent off for ten minutes too, and Gopperth knocked over the resulting penalty.
Gopperth and Clegg exchanged further penalties, and then just a minute before half-time a fourth penalty put us into the lead for the first time. With just seconds left on the clock Micky Young kicked for touch and we went into the break ahead.
In the second half Clegg kicked a penalty, but then came a moment from the days of yore, from the Falcons we used to know but still love. Tane Tu’ipulotu, who had come on as a replacement for the injured Jeremy Manning in the first half, broke and set up James Fitzpatrick for a storming run towards the five-metre line. Replacement flanker and league debutant Alex Gray then took on the ball and crashed over the line.
Not only did the ball bounce up out of Gray’s hands as it hit the ground, I thought the referee might have been unsighted by the post and wouldn’t give the score. No worries – the arm went up and the 5,011 in the stands (the 11 being added by Mrs Doc and her students) went potty. Gopperth converted easily.
With their wings now up, the Falcons came roaring forward again and Luke Fielden was set up on the right. Again Gopperth added the extras, putting us 26-13 up. On a rare second half attack Mike Brown scored, but Clegg’s missed conversion (I think his mind was on the stag do) kept us in front by the magical number of eight points.
Any worries we had were eased by the rejuvenated Micky Young darting through and forcing his way over the line for the final try. Even with just a few minutes left, we had to sing “We want a bonus point”. When was the last time we’ve been able to sing that at home? A 33-18 win was more than satisfactory though.
With us now 11 points ahead of Leeds, they now need to win three more games than we do in the rest of the season to overhaul us, not including bonus points. I personally can’t see that happening. We now must look upward, the next two weeks provide us with a chance to win a trophy, get a Heineken Cup place and hopefully a sell-out against Leeds in April.
I imagine I wasn’t the only one smiling when I woke up today. It must be at least a couple of years since we left KP so happy.
At some point in the second half Gunzee said to me that he had decided to get a season ticket after all next season. I agreed, even if I just make the second half! Heat of the moment chat like.
So a glorious end to a stressful week. Was it worth it? Course it was!
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After last weeks win I thought there might have been a better crowd than just over 5000 though.
That sounds much better and accurately reflects the match!!
Here's hoping that Jerry's hip injury isn't too serious
Keep it up and you never know where we'll get to.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:05:15:13:51 by TouchLine.
Thumper Jnr put in another excellent shift, but my MOTM was Gopperth, never flinched with his kicking and just look what an extra yard of space can mean when he gets reasonable ball from MY.
Alex Gray was very impressive when he cam on too.
BUT my night was spoiled by yet another shoite set up in the west stand bar. I stood for 25 mins waiting after the game only be told when it was my turn that the "guinness and smiths were off and the fosters was on its way". What a complete shambles.
So off we went to the Hidy Hole, oh dear, not much better.
A real shame, there was such a feel good factor, an opportunity for the club to make some extra revenue, they cocked it up yet again. Quite how you run out of beer 25 mins after kick off is beyond me, absolutely unbelievable, but is it? This is the Falcons, not the first time, won't be the last.
I got 2 pints of guinness in south stand before/during game. Second pint was handed staright back to them, flat as a fart. Second pint not much better but drinkable, just. Pint in Hidy Hole was decent enough, just the clientele and atmosphere were awful. Couple of Quis supporters got to top of stairs, took one look, had a quick word with the bouncer (yes, there was a bouncer!!) and immediately left.
C'mon Falcons, get it bloody sorted man for crying out loud. How many more times???...
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:07:10:55:03 by TouchLine.
Bar in the west stand is outsorced we know that , same people that run Leicester's bars too. We got our beers from south stand post match so cant comment how long it took west stand straight away but not long after that was only 5 mins but i'm sure the club will be looking into that anyway.
Shame you seem more bothered about a pint than the excellent result like.
I was in there about half an hour after kick off, stayed about 20 minutes, it was awful. Didn't see you in there, you must have come accross after that. There were plenty "locals" in there though.
You're wrong though, I was more bothered about the rugby, but just felt it's another opportunity lost for the club to generate much needed revenue and create an experience that will attract people back. Yes of course the rugby on the pitch is the key, but on a Friday night there was an opportunity to embrace the feel good factor and sell a few beers, sadly they couldn't do that because they ran out 25 minutes after kick off.
It put a dampener on a good night, that's all, but the result was what mattered in the end, I agree about that.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:07:11:55:47 by DGNTR.
And if more bothered about the rugby its amazing you say much more about the bars.
We left about 10.45, as I say we were in West stand for 25 mins or so, then Hidy Hole for about 20 mins. I was back at the local for 11pm so we've obviously left before you arrived.
The fact that the club don't run the concourse bars - is that a valid excuse for them running out of beer? Surely the club are on a percentage of the take and have a vested interest in how those bars are run?
Why did the Bar Manager tell us to write to the club to complain then if it's nowt to do with the club?
Anyway, not worth arguing about, we won, nuff sed.
DG is right about the poor service though. I took friends for their first experience, and the wife, but can you believe that the SS ran out of Guinness well before the end of the game. Not blaming the club as such, but it is about time they pedalled the concourse bar management and got a decent firm in. I know that contracts will complicate things, but there must be something in there about non-performance. Such things do take the edge off a good night - only just mind, the performance on the pitch was so uplifting that even running out of beer couldn't spoil the night.
I assume it wasn't guinness Steve, Oldgit says it ran out before the game finished. They still had guinness at half time, though it did take them 2 attempts to pour me something that was drinkable.
I would sell canned Guinness anyway , takes too long to pour and must take some keeping right.
I was in Tokyo Bar in toon a couple of weeks ago and they were serving guinness in cans. He was being a bit sneaky too, pouring it under the counter. I spotted him and asked why I couldn't have draft from his guinness pump, said it was just for show!!
Quote:lizard118
I've always been impressed with London Irish ticket and refreshment service though.You also have mobile people selling Guinness in rack-sac type thingys if you cant be bothered to go to the bar.
Guinness at £3.80 a pint from one of those rack-sack things? It was also as flat as a witches t!t & the attempt at"re-vitalising" it with a gas canister ended up with the stuff all down the front of my old white away shirt.
It's washed out now though.
I'll take my my place in the queue at the bar next time.
.....but what do I know? I'm not an Australian TMO.
Quote:Leipziger
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Guinness supposed to be flat? The only time I've had it was in Dublin and it's supposed to be better there, it was as fizzy as orange squash.
What I meant was, it had no head on it, due lack of gas in the dispenser.
I assume the pint you had in Dublin had a fair sized head on it.
Here we go; off topic again!
.....but what do I know? I'm not an Australian TMO.
The correct way to pour Guiness??
No chance in plastic drinking vessels.
Draught Guinness is special, and needs to be poured correctly. Essential to this is the Guinness glass with its tulip shape. Unfortunately in my experience this you cannot get Guinness in this glass in the US. You can only get 'straight' sided glasses.
If you have the correct glass as shown below the proper procedure is to place the glass against the tap tilted to a 45 degree angle. Start the pour by pulling down sharply on the tap until it is fully open. If you do this too slowly too much head will form later on so be quick. Pour down along the side of the glass. Continue pouring at this angle until the glass is a little less than half full then slowly tilt the glass back to 90 degrees as you pull the glass away slightly from the tap. You should be just finished reaching 90 degrees as you reach the top of the first part of the pour. The first part ends on the bottom of the harp on the glass i.e. the line between the head and the liquid rests on this point (see pic 4). Leave your pint aside until it is FULLY settled.
I know its a pain and you want to enjoy your pint right now, but why not enjoy watching it settle instead and marvel at how Guinness is in fact a deep red and not 'the black stuff' as it is often called.
For the second part of the pour bring the now settled pint to the tap. Place the tap into the pint just to below the head (you actually don't really need to do this, just make sure its less than an inch of distance between the head and tap so as to cause as little disturbance to the settled first part as possible). Press the tap away from you so as to fill the glass slowly. Do not pull it down and fully open as you did when pouring the first part. Finish your pour as the head comes up to the top of the glass and sits nicely as shown in the second pic below. The 'perfect' head on a pint of Guinness is as shown here too, just above the harp to the top of the glass in thickness.
Let this settle before supping any of it.
There you have it, the perfect Guinness pour. Enjoy!!!!
If you haven't got the proper glass then its hard to form the head and your pint wont keep a proper head the whole way down. If you have those 'straight' sided glasses a trick that helps is to move the glass towards and away from the tap as you do the first part of the pour. This 'upsets' the pint more and causes more head to form. Finish the pint in the same way.
If you really really want to you can do the artsy shamrock thing which is where you pour the second part of the pour while moving the glass in the shape of a shamrock so that the head has a shamrock imprint on it. For this you wouldn't place the tap into the pint, you would keep it just above the head.
Bottles or Cans of Guinness don't need this fancy pour, just pour it as you would any other beer. This is because the kind folks at Guinness invented a little plastic ball called a widget that goes in the can to do all this work for you.
