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Sometimes a fan has to suffer

Friday 22nd January, kick-off 7.45pm: European Challenge Cup pool stage: Result – Montpellier 42 Harlequins 9. This report won’t take long because, when typing words is akin to chipping granite with a blunt knife and fork, brevity becomes a virtue. For the last 36 hours, every waking hour, [...]

January 23, 2016 // 0 Comments

Mine’s a double Jameson’s, Coach …

Now I know something of how fans of David Bowie and Glenn Frey of The Eagles must be feeling – yesterday Conor O’Shea, Harlequins’ Director of Rugby, announced that he’d be leaving his post at the end of the season. He’s being pretty quiet about where he might be going next, but the [...]

January 21, 2016 // 0 Comments

Sport – a new crisis point, or a crossroads?

It borders upon the inevitable and clichéd to say that in the 21st Century the average sports fan could be forgiven for doubting everything he or she ever believed about the integrity of elite sporting contests. Cycling … FIFA … the IAAF … performance-enhancing drugs … unequal division of [...]

January 20, 2016 // 0 Comments

Both in laws and application

If I was asked to list the aspects of rugby union that could be improved, I’m pretty sure that my list would not be too much different from that of every other rugby fan – the laws (and how they are applied) would be right up there. Scrums – everything about them generally, but [...]

January 20, 2016 // 0 Comments

Catching up with the past

About a week before Christmas last year, a pal of mine rang me from a function he was attending. “Hi, it’s me. You won’t believe who I’ve just met at this party. Hold the phone …” he continued before I could get a word – let alone a query – in or protest, “… I’ll put [...]

January 19, 2016 // 0 Comments

Another game of two halves

The Stoop, Sunday 17th January, kick-off 3.15pm: European Challenge Cup: Harlequins 34 Cardiff Blues 26. The headlines from yesterday’s entertaining encounter are that Quins, despite having yet to play home and away fixtures against Montpelier in Pool 3, have already qualified in first position [...]

January 18, 2016 // 0 Comments

Little doubt it’s going to get worse before it gets better …

This morning the first of what may end up becoming several junior doctors’ strikes over the issue of what has been called ‘the 7-day NHS’ will end. Industrial disputes generally tend to pass me by and this one certainly has. I’m not entirely sure why. It could be because I’m too thick and [...]

January 13, 2016 // 0 Comments

The Man Who Fell To Earth

I had just got up yesterday, nipped across the road to buy my newspapers and returned to make a cup of tea when – switching the BBC1 morning show on the television – I first caught the news about the passing of rock star David Bowie. For the rest of the day it seemed as if the UK airwaves had [...]

January 12, 2016 // 0 Comments

The wait is almost over

Unless I have managed to cross some wires somewhere, this week’s biggest rugby union development – certainly for England fans – will be the announcement of new head coach Eddie Jones’ first Elite Player Squad containing those players from which he will select his teams for the 2016 Six [...]

January 11, 2016 // 0 Comments

Please pardon my ‘doubting Thomas’ moment …

[The Stoop, Saturday 9th January 2015: Aviva Premiership Round 9: Harlequins 29 Saracens 23.] As I type this I’m trying to think of comparable days in my life to match yesterday – perhaps the birth of my kids; my two wedding days; my last day at school on which I captained my house to a win in [...]

January 10, 2016 // 0 Comments

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