Montferr-And Our Cup

By Charlotte Coldrey
May 26 2004

We got to the stoop really early because dad wanted to get some parker pen challenge cup t-shirts and flags. We got the flags and every body was getting on their coaches but we had already found one problem where was our coach!

We got the Madejski stadium and had a picnic where a really grumpy old man came up to us and said “I hope your going to clean up your litter”-didn’t he know that we we supported rugby and not football? Dad did our face paints-very shakily might I add so it wasn’t as good as it was in Connacht! Got to our seats and I got my sign ready saying CMON YOU QUINS! on one side and WE’LL MISS U PAT on the other! Did anybody see it?

The players came out and they all just seemed to be standing waiting for kick off but André Vos had forgotten his gum shield so I thought this was a great opportunity to hold up my sign. The game started and I don’t know why but I could really feel we were going to win but that soon all changed….
……Shaggy did a great kick for Gav to score but the French were soon ahead again, scoring 2 tries. In the last 20 minutes of the game I started to get that feeling back that we were going to win but… then a French player kicked it up their side of the pitch and all the action seemed to be there. At that point my nails came off as well as Mums! But then in those last couple of crucial minutes everything seemed to be Quins after a French man got sent off for punching the Fun Bus-how dare he, didn’t he know who he is? Then in the last 10 seconds Simon ran and ran and scored the try every one wanted.

Then Andy Dunne Converted it superbly and

The team came round the pitch and Ace came on which was a big shock and we saw Ugo jump up on him. All the boys were so happy that they won. We felt sorry for the French people as they were all in tears sitting on the ground wit their heads in their hands.

We went back to the stoop and waited for the players to come. They all went up on to the West stand balcony to give speeches, show the cup and of course shower us with champagne! Me and Ash ran up the stairs to get all their autographs. Ash asked Jim Evans if the champagne tasted nice and he asked Ash if he wanted a sip, so Ash replied by saying “no thanks I can just suck it off of my shirt” and went up to George and he remembered Ash from Connacht and he asked him where his sister was (which everybody tends to think by the way we’re not!) and asked us our names. We then tried to get past all the players and Dad told me to elbow Ace out of the way but I took one look at him and thought no way! Said good bye to Jase and asked him to sign his auto biography which we had been carrying around for 6 months hoping to get it signed. We moved and saw Ben Willis with the cup so I had my picture taken with him. 

We went back onto the pitch and got everybody’s autographs. We saw Ugo and ran over to him but then we found out that it wasn’t such a great time as he was trying to get over the barrier and he wasn’t exactly sober, but we did get it after his little stumble! Got Scott’s and Kai’s autograph and Scott asked our opinion about Kai’s hair so we said we preferred it before- longer and blonde so he told us he’d work on it!

We went into the bar and I saw Pat, for the last time playing for Quins, and Burkey there. I got really upset about the leaving players. We were also sad about Jason The Orang Utan retiring.

We watched the Wasps vs. Toulouse game today and Ash pointed out that Wasps won the Parker Pen cup last year so may be it’s our turn to win the Heineken Cup next year? Fingers Crossed!