The Worst Ever Away Trip
Old Culverhaysians
By Stalwart
March 14 2012
Stalwart (Dave Holmes ) 'The Worst Ever Away Trip' continues a series of stories sent in by Pirates Supporters and contributors to the board....... In coming weeks look out for more stories and hopefully yours.
In our 40+ years of following The Pirates all over the country (and once even to Dunkirk, in France) we have been pretty lucky.
I can only remember a couple of times when the game was cancelled after we set off, or abandoned before the end.
One game in Gloucestershire was called to a halt when the ref tweaked a hamstring and no other officials were there.
Then there was the farce at Newbury, a few seasons ago, when it was decided just before kick off that the pitch was too wet!
We’d gone up on the Friday evening, stayed in a Travelodge, had a pleasant breakfast, went to the ground, hung around for two hours until the decision was made, had some lunch and then went home!
But the worst experience was many moons ago when we played a team called Old Culverhaysians, from the Bath area.
We set off in the early morning, with our two young sons dragged along as usual (they were used to it!) All was well on the journey to the beautiful city of Bath. We arrived soon after midday, in good time for the 3pm kick off.
We found the clubhouse easily, with the usual immaculate navigational skills of Mrs H. We parked up and wandered up to the door – locked.
Not a soul about – but maybe we were a bit early. We hung around for half an hour, still nobody appeared. What was even more worrying was that there was no sign of an actual rugby pitch anywhere nearby and no clues as to where it was.
This was long before mobile phones, so we had no way of communicating with the team bus, and as usual we were the only travelling supporters.
So we piled back into the car and set off in search of the field.
This was when the nightmare began.
Just down the road we spotted a local lady – who had never heard of the team and had no idea where they played! On a bit further we asked another local, then another, then another. Eventually we found a chap who had, at least heard of the rugby club and told us where the field was – joy!
We duly followed his directions and found the aforementioned rugby pitch. Not a soul to be seen, no players, no flags, nothing.
We asked yet another passer-by who told us of another pitch they sometime used – so off we went to find yet another deserted rugby field.
Time was going on by now, only about an hour to the scheduled kick off time. After more inquiries we visited another field, then another, then another.
There are a lot of rugby fields in Bath, and we visited most of them that afternoon.
There had been, it seemed, a lot of overnight rain and several pitches were waterlogged.
3pm duly arrived, then 3.30. We were, as you can imagine, pretty fed up – to put it mildly.
Finally, someone who actually knew what they were talking about told us to try the University pitches – which we did, and to our surprise and delight there were The Pirates!
Unfortunately, by this time, the second half was drawing to a close – we actually saw about ten minutes of the game. To rub salt into the wound we lost the game.
So we did about four and a half hours on the road there, four hours looking for the field, ten minutes watching The Pirates lose, then four and a half hours back home again – not the ideal way to spend a Saturday!
Dave Holmes (Stalwart)
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Quote:I remember the Newbury fruits trip too. I travelled up with the Stig Tempest driving at warp factor 9 to get us there early only to find, as you did, that the game was off despite an upper pitch seeming perfectly playable. My best memory was out mascot Captain Benbow (not Mrs Stalwart) out on the pitch slipping over on the wetness beneath his feet (and, consequentially, his backside!). If I remember correctly he had a (play) fight with their mascot and had his head knocked off by him (poor show Newbury) - I also remember their catering staff giving out hot mince pies, and, in fact two were given to a couple of our fans who turned up in a taxi direct from the railway station before they took the cab straight back to get a train home! The worst part of that visit though was the so called pasties - they have to be the worst I've ever had, including the pastry wrapped poison they sell at the Brickfields.Then there was the farce at Newbury, a few seasons ago, when it was decided just before kick off that the pitch was too wet!
We’d gone up on the Friday evening, stayed in a Travelodge, had a pleasant breakfast, went to the ground, hung around for two hours until the decision was made, had some lunch and then went home!
Don't let anything get in the way of a good game of Rugby