A Letter from Bristol.

William Blessing · Post by **William Blessing** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:25 pm

The Honeymoon is over.... Exeter Chiefs 15 Bristol 6

So we've enjoyed the summer long, it has been bit a bit "damp" to be honest, gaily throwing brightly coloured beach balls to our lovely young bride, followed by long lingering walks, arm in arm along the sea shore, holding hands as the sun sets, and although that first night of marriage wasn't a complete success in that the action lasted all of about three minutes...well no one's perfect.

But we've spent long enough in the gym admiring our lithe torso's and gimpy little weight lifting gloves, perhaps that peroxide blonde streak of hair is a little too much, and "should I wear my white or my golden boots? I don't know, decisions decisions...." (Ed. Get on with it, Blessing you fool........You know you might be annoying those Tiger fans of yours....on the Official Board)

But rugby players and their coaches have their feelings too.... as well as us humble scribes...and no one can ever accuse us of not wanting to do our best...yet despite the best of intentions, this defeat by Exeter RFC was the most humiliating and embarrassing performance since......the last time we played them back in the year we won promotion.

We played them at their thoroughly wrotten dump of an old ground in the centre of Exeter. The pitch, I seem to recall, was circular, not square. It had for a perimeter a sandy beach for mangy old greyhound dogs to run around. Was it a dog track? And an insane harridan of a woman on the tannoy spent the whole game shouting angrily at us. I was plunged into such a deep depression by that game that it finally ended with me being fired from my job for SouthEastWater,prounounced, "Wharta", for being a complete loony, would you believe.

Which left me free, thank God, to do what I what I really wanted to do, and that was follow Bristol on their travels in the great spring offensive of 2005 and we turned things around at Plymouth with a sensational performance, followed up by a desperate win at Coventry and the ritual sacrifice of the Exeter Chiefs, their shell shocked fans looking on with splendid Indian Head sets and all, by 70 points in front of the SKY cameras at the Memorial Ground, Bristol.

It left me feeling strangely deflated and concerned for their evident suffering. We all know how it feels to fail. We all know we have to pick ourselves up and start all over again. Even as I write, one of our players, Darren Crompton is feeling the torment of a broken ankle and many more players tonight will nurse torn muscles, battered bodies and wounded pride.

These players put themselves on the line. Who am I to criticise? Not I. More to encourage. But let us not gild the lily. Let's be honest. Our Bath friends mock us as being the clowns of the "Cabot Circus", the soon to be opened Mother of All Shopping Malls, in the centre of Bristol's Broadmead. (Broadmead meaning, by the way, the wide meadow. A lovely name, is it not?). Would we be lion tamers or trapeze artists of the circus? At the moment all we are capable of doing is shovelling sheet. But then somebodies got to do it.

On the train home, I asked my fellow supporters what I could say about the game and not be cruel. They said..."Well, we turned up". And so we did. And we all had a merry time. It was a fun day out, despite the rain. For that I thank the Exeter Chiefs in particular and the World in general, and beg forgiveness if I offend, or worse, bore you with my ramblings.

As for the game, we couldn't control the ball. Our errant Kiwi Hooker, who last season so encouraged us with his fire and new found accuracy throwing in, once again had his radar on the blink. If he had been in charge of directing our missiles in a nuclear war they would have narrowly missed Buckingham Palace rather than hit the Kremlin... God forbid.

So what do we do? We go back to the training ground and look forward to playing Bath and fire into them with all the fury of a team possessed and then when we come up against the Leicester Tigers, who some of their supporters on their rather precious and slightly pompous Official Board, but not on the Unofficial Board I hasten to add, have, I suggest an over inflated opinion of their own literary merits.

Let us give them something meaty to "chew" over. Our heads in their mouth? We shall see.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:36 pm

Good luck William! And welcome to the forum!

William Blessing · Post by **William Blessing** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:58 pm

BillW

Thankyou for your kind welcome. I have to admit I was rather dissappointed about the rather personal reaction on the Chit Chat Board to my what I thought was a harmless account of a pleasant cycle ride. Hardly "War and Peace", is it?

I thought we weren't allowed to be rude to each other on these sites, sentiments I heartily agree with by the way, and of course, will attempt to abide by.

It's a pity, in my opinion that chit chat is seperated from rugby talk. One goes with the other, but perhaps this board is so busy that it needs it to be that way. The sleepy old Bristol Boards, Official and Unofficial just let me ramble on to my hearts content with barely a passing comment. I sometimes wonder why? Is anyone listening out there? You tell me.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:03 pm

William

I alas do not venture often onto the chit chat forum. Although I defend to the death those who are subject to personal attacks on this forum.

Rudeness is indeed not permitted. Unless it is me being rude to those who hav rudely attacked others!!

Keep posting! I shall venture on to chit chat and roundly abuse those who have been rude to you!

Tigerbeat · Post by **Tigerbeat** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:06 pm

William,

Welcome to the forum. As you may have seen, the forum is very active at the moment and will get considerablly more busier as the season develops. Some users like to discuss rugby and other users prefer just general chit chat.

The forum has been set up so that users who want just rugby discussion can generally find it on the Fans Forum. The split makes it user friendly. I beleive that other Clubs have a similar split on the forums.

Happy posting

William Blessing · Post by **William Blessing** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:23 pm

Tigerbeat,

Indeed I fully understand the need to separate the topics, and that was why I reluctantly abided by the rules, fully aware that as a result only a few odd balls would actually ever visit the chit chat site and hardly anyone would read it. A bit of a ghetto isnt it?

The Unofficial England Board edited by a power crazed lady by the name of Kath, forbade any criticism of the RFU on "her" board, so as a result various posters started talking about films like "The Thirty Nine Steps", and it was absolutely brilliant.

Then she exiled the thread to a horribly named "Chill out zone", where everything was frozen to death and when we complained she edited out the thread altogether and then when we complained she banned us all dissenters.

As a result, hardly no one goes there now. That's a pity. I hope very much not to in any way annoy anyone on this board. Perhaps provoke debate. As always I will do my best to entertain. I thankyou for your very kind and reasonable response. I am encouraged and relieved. Once again, my thanks.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:30 pm

Rizzo and Pam are both luvely ladies - and not the least bit power crazed. Luvs 'em both ter peices!!!

William Blessing · Post by **William Blessing** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:45 pm

BillW

I'm sure they are. If only I had your charm.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:48 pm

Hee hee! I am not sure that is what they call it!!

Hiya Pam!!

Jiya Rizzo!

Jim__2 · Post by **Jim__2** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:45 am

Just had a read through the thread and you sound a right cherpy chap. Welcome to the forum!

captain_insaino · Post by **captain_insaino** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:37 am

The one exception is that Bill is allowed to continue his running war of words with DaveAngel whenever he pleases and on whatever thread he pleases (or at least thats how it seems)

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:48 am

"We hold these truths to be self evident"!!!

All men are born equal ..........

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:31 am

WB - always good to see a new face, welcome to the forum.

I think you will find our place very different to the Bristol board. The Tigers' forum is probably the busiest club-specific rugby board in England; and as with all forums the quality (from all of us) is highly variable. Bill is more a 'quantity' man..... only kidding BW.

Nothing wrong with robust, albeit civilised, responses. You'll find that some of us do robust very well. Some of us even do civilised.

I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Bristol, having watched them regularly when I was at Uni in the early 80's. They were a pretty decent outfit before young Stuart Barnes was tempted away by Bath. However, and turning to the present, I fear that it will be a tough old slog for your boys this season. Relegation dogfights are looming.

William Blessing · Post by **William Blessing** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:24 am

Dear Mr Waffle,

Why use one word when a thousand will do?

I'm going to try to keep this reply as pithy as possible, although I feel I'm already going off message. After all, isn't this where we fatties get to burn off our nervous energy?

I get tied up in knots of anxiety when I come under sustained collective support. I'm even thinking of not telling our friends on the Chit Chat Board of what happened on my "rural ride". They could read it on the Unofficial Bristol Board, but then they might not understand the nuances of other contributor's posts which always add rather than detract, even if I'm called a raving boring pillock.

By the way Mr Waffle, what did you study at Bristol?
Journalism? Not media studies, or was it "LADIES" through the bottom of an empty beer glass?

This board is fun! Wish I could say it about watching Bris play rugby.

By the way, Captain Insainio, who is Dave Angel? Is it my good friend DaveAitch or someone lurking in cyberspace ready to pounce on us wafflers and loonies?