A wise man once told me to do something new every day and last Friday I certainly managed to fit in plenty of new things and unfortunately a worrying repeat of a stupid thing.
My first new thing was to try out a new bar, always a good one to start with and it does invariably lead to others! Having met up with some other Ulster supporters on the Larne to Belfast train I was persuaded by my travelling companions to try the Laganside Inn at the bottom of the Ravenhill Road.
Not exactly the most inviting from the outside, and a bar that I’ve passed many a time on my way to Ravers, but delightfully friendly on the inside. It had the added benefit of serving a decent pint of Bass, which has sadly become a bit of a rarity in these designer lager days, so it’s definitely one for further visits.
Our sojourn in the Laganside nearly made us late for the next new thing but we managed to snag a taxi in time and made it to my first Ulster Ravens game with minutes to spare. Fortunately, or unfortunately really, the crowd was very sparse and I made it to a suitable spot near the halfway line on the Prom to start my match tweets. Now trying to smoke, drink and twitter all at the same time takes a lot of concentration and it was several minutes before I could look round. Imagine my horror to find that I was surrounded, not only by scurrilous terrace dwellers, but by the last stragglers of the slowly disintegrating 2BC.
Many members of this once proud organisation have drifted away since leader Kimble started suckling at the teat of the corporate sponsors but they do still retain a remarkable ability to annoy with their inappropriate chants, unfunny banter and football supporter like whining but fortunately due to the sparse crowd I was able to move out of earshot and find my natural home amongst other, more cultured, Promenaders.
We were soon joined by brianc who was like a fish out of water outside the comforts of the new stand, but he did keep us amused with his continual spraying of a delicately scented disinfectant at the terracites.
I had hoped to have some suitable snaps of the supporters, particularly the sizable travelling contingent from Bedford, but though I had remembered to bring my camera I had forgotten to put a flash card in it so it was useless! I had done this before as I was continually reminded by Dergman who arrived around half time but as his arrival corresponded with the end of all scoring in the match I don’t think he should have been pointing out things anyway!
I did meet up with some visiting supporters, a pair of delightful ladies from Cork and Nashville of all places, who had a camera and card and they did promise to send in some pics so hopefully we’ll get something up later in the week.
All in all it was a good match and an enjoyable evening in good company, so I for one was pleased I had done a couple of new things on Friday.
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