We’ve come a long, long way…

By SimQuin
March 31 2006

So here we are, on the final straight, possibly to pass the finishing line if Bedford lose to Exeter and we beat Sedgley Park. And what a season it’s been! With our intrepid travelling representatives going West and North in the cause and for us unfortunate souls who have to content themselves

with home games, a chance to welcome new faces and make new friends at the Stoop.

Why am I writing this? Well, there was a comment from Sale chief exec, Niels de Vos that has got me thinking about how far Harlequins have come in the past few years in terms of being a club.

In the Rugby Times, de Vos said: “…you need to be able to do what Harlequins have done. If you’re going to have bad years you need to make sure you’ve built a genuine dynasty that people feel affection for, rather than people that just come to watch a winning side.”

My first game at the Stoop was somewhere in the dark distant past, well the 70s, and I have supported them all my life. Yet even ten years ago, there was a feeling that there were only a small percentage of Quins supporters that would actually bother to go to the Stoop for a lowly league game while other members happily treated the Cup games in their various guises as almost the reason for Quins’ existence. Indeed, it was only a few years ago that you could still turn up on matchday, go to the ticket office and ask for “West Stand, about half-way thank you” and get a ticket.

This began to change. With the advent of the East Stand, gone was the hill, gone was the running track, and soon to disappear was nominated membership. The club went open. New supporters started to turn up, some disenchanted with football, others wanting to see what this rugby-lark was all about. Thanks to Mark Evans and his team, they found a club building its community, building its matchday experience, and occasionally seeing a team capable of beating the best. The World Cup (that seems so long ago now!) continued to bring in new support and most stayed with season tickets getting year-on-year increases.

Then that dreadful day last April. What would happen? Would it mean the “fancy dans” would finally disappear, drowned under their mountain of pimms and canapés? A lot of writers - some shamefully so, yes Mr Ackford I am talking about you - and other clubs had an outdated image of the “city slickers” and the shaudenfraude at our demise ably demonstrating this.

But they were wrong. Quins supporters now came from every walk of life. It was their club, their team. Yes some left to go elsewhere to watch top flight rugby, but the vast majority turned round to the club and said “thanks we’ll stick with you guys”. This attitude was reflected by the team and sponsors, and the feared cull at the club failed to materialise – although of course there were unfortunately a few redundancies.

With Merthens and Richards sticking to their promises of coming to the Stoop and the academy boys stepping up to the mark and taking chances that may not have been as available in the Premiership, it seems that there is life down below and it is something that, probably Leeds, will do well to note. Indeed, “doing a Harlequins” seems to be the phrase for the demoted-threatened Yorkshire side. In addition, as Brendan Gallagher in the Telegraph noted, the completion of the Lexus Stand gave us a ground that ranks “with Franklin's Gardens as the best purpose-built club rugby ground of the professional era and when they tackle their old friends from the Premiership again next September, they will hit the ground running commercially.”

All this you know of course. But the effect all this has had, not only in terms of creating the ONLY professional team in London, but attracted vast crowds on the ND1 away circuit and at home where we’re averaging around 9,000 for the season.

Other clubs are noticing the warmth and friendships that have been created this season, the attitude superbly summed after post-Pirates match as “the sportsmanship by both sets of supporters, with not even Sunday's rain dampening the enjoyment of the occasion when they met once more” on This is Cornwall.

As I said, you all know this, but it is worth reminding you bunch of opinionated, passionate, contradictory folk that are otherwise known as fans, of how far Quins have come in the past five-to-ten years and that the “commitment, loyalty and belief” seems now installed as a given, rather than an option.

As Gallagher noted back in November: “Harlequins are very much alive and well and it could just be that their year away from the limelight will prove a blessing rather than a hindrance.”

PS:

Of course, in true Quins tradition, now that I have written all this, the team will snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory and the Pirates’ beer supply will come under attack once more next season!!!!