An Eds Diary - 28th August 2003

By BrianC
July 9 2004

London Irish launch a new, much improved, website. We are all pleasantly surprised when a match report of the Narbonne pre-season friendly is published a day after the game. Will they be able to keep this up all season?

An Ed’s Diary – 28th August 2003

It’s been a few weeks since I put pen to paper (Should I say Finger to keyboard?), so much has happened in that time that as I start this I hardly know where to begin.

Henley was yet again a great success. A hundred odd LI folk, two hundred or so from players & supporters of the fat bloke sevens, food to die for, a sunny day by the river with friends and family. All told there is really nothing else that you could ask for – aside from the fact that the temperature could have been about 10 degrees lower.

The machine that kicks in when this family get together and decide to have a party is truly awesome. I still worry that those who are doing the work have too much put on them but they seem to enjoy it. Amongst the mails I received after the event was one from AlecW referring to his memory of walking round on the day wearing a dopey grin on his face, so much was he enjoying the event. I know exactly what he means. For me it was both a busy and a very enjoyable day, I was knackered by the end of it.

After Henley myself and Dutch Bird spend a week on the river. We make it as far down as Windsor where we spend a genial evening at the Henry VI pub with a few of the site regulars and lurkers. I take a few photos and promise to write a story about the pub. Something I still have to do.

Returning home from my week away I find that Subtel has been snowed under with work, too busy to post the Henley report submitted by Mrs Goz or any of the photos he has received. It takes a few days but we manage to catch up on everything.

The new shirt has been launched. Initial reports are that it is selling very well. LI have also launched a new website. Initially it looks a lot better than the various forms of dogs dinner they have had over the last four to five years. Very pleasantly surprised when they have a report from the Narbonne pre-season friendly up within a day of the game. Let’s hope that they can keep something like this up throughout the season.

Word on the block is that we do have a shirt sponsor next season. An initial attempt at speculation as to who this might be was jumped on by a number of people, myself included (I’m in enough doo doo over the shirts). At this moment my guess is that the new sponsor is Paddy Power, all will be revealed on the press day in a weeks time.

Despite the increase in social activity and the PSF’s the site has been quieter than I would have thought this month. We are the top rugby site, narrowly ahead of Northampton but a site called ‘Unofficial Spurs’ has come from nowhere to being top of the tree. If my suspicions are correct soccer sites will come to dominate Sportnetwork in the years to come. At least we’ve had our time in the sun, next summer I must make sure that I have June, July and August covered rather than just the first two of those months.

Two threads on the MB from the past few weeks spring to mind. One started off as a joke then, prompted by Gabriel, became a serious discussion about sponsorship by alcohol companies. The other was one that started normally then became one where fish names were worked into the messages ‘What a load of pollacks!’ being a prime example. Mornington Crescent has been resurrected, I can’t imagine the reincarnation lasting that long.