Are we ready for a party?

By BrianC
March 21 2005

This Saturday we, somewhat belatedly, hold our Saint Patrick’s party. We play hosts to Gloucester in what is an important game for both teams.

Our ZP survival is still at stake and Gloucester, whose form has slipped recently, are by no means assured of Heineken Cup qualification this season, currently they sit 6^th in the table.

Those of you who have been to one of our Saint Patrick’s games before will not need to be told what a special day this is in our calendar.  As supporters we are a group who pride ourselves in our sociability.  This is our biggest party of the year.

For the occasion the whole car park in front of the Megastore is turned into a party area; large stage at one end, food stalls and bars. (The latter hopefully at the other end of the car park from the stage to avoid the problems of earlier years.) The full agenda for the days activities can be found on the official site. It should be noted from this that as the Windsor suite is being used for hospitality the popular ‘Curry for a fiver’ will not be available this weekend.

Last year the post-match entertainment was cancelled due to the stage suffering storm damage. Those of us who missed the chance to see The Commitments then will get another chance this time around. They are joined by the tribute band, Utter Madness and Cowshed regulars, Le Cheile. Speaking personally I think it is a shame that The Gagging Ferrets have not been given a slot, they fully deserve one.

The crowd for this game will be huge, certainly in excess of 15k and probably closer to 20k. This invariably puts a great strain on the Madejski facilities and causes traffic problems in the environs of the stadium. The advice is thus to arrive early and not to be in too great a hurry to leave after the game has finished. This should not be onerous as there will be plenty to see and do.  Things open four hours before kick off (1pm) and continue until 10pm. If you are one of those staying at the hotel do not expect to see your bed until the small hours if at all.

On field a hard fought battle looks to be on the cards. Our form of late has been topsy turvey. Two of our better performances this season, winning at Saracens and losing at Leicester have sandwiched what was arguably our worst, the abysmal cup semi-final defeat at Leeds. We must all hope that the team that fronts up on Saturday is the one that we know can play.

This is now our fifth St Patrick’s game at the Madejski. We won the first two against Northampton and Bristol and have lost the most recent two  against Quins and Bath. Our one meeting with Gloucester this season was at Kingsholm in September. We went down 23 – 16.

I cannot explain why but I feel strangely positive about this game.  Come what may on Saturday evening we will be raising a glass in celebration of St Patrick and our club. Let’s hope we are also doing so in celebration of a victory.