Away games are a lot different than home games! If your experience of watching Quins has been limited to the Stoop and a few cup finals then you’re missing out. In the last few years away support has been numerically low but this year has seen a bit of a renaissance with healthy numbers going to many of the ZP games and to the ever popular European games. With most clubs they group the away fans together in two or three blocks, consequently you make a disproportionate amount of noise as is often picked up on the telly or on the web broadcasts of our games. Quite a camaraderie has built up amongst the away support and its from the “we’re being heard but not seen” position that BaldRick got the mind numbingly simple idea of the trews from. The rest, as they say, is a blurry hangover.

Hopes at the start .....
I started the season with the intention of getting a coach to almost every away league game played at a weekend, with the exception of Newcastle Falcons and Wasps. Well we’re almost going to succeed as our only “failure” so far has been Leeds. With both Tiggers and Saints falling on Friday nights (Saints was very well supported by the way), we’ve so far taken our convoy to Glaws, Sale for the Powergen cup match and Sarries. That leaves Barf, Brizzel, London Irish and Sale again to come. We’re still intending to offer the Sale match at a silly price, end of season sale sort of thing!

Of course just getting to the Stoop means a difficult journey for many fans, but there are some hardy souls who trek from the depths of Surrey or north or west Kent just to start their journey. For the Bath and Bristol games we’ll be stopping at country pubs en route for lunch. I have a Gloucestershire mate who has been pouring over road maps and good beer guides this week, just for me, so that some silly buggers can have a pint of Fuddles Gnarled Peculiar or Nisbets Throat Throttler to go with their ciabbatta and wild rice (well burger and fries to many).

The benefits .....
So far we haven’t managed to fill a coach. This is a great shame as most of the time we’ve had a good laugh and it’s a great opportunity to meet others. The coaches are suitable for anybody. They have a loo, and it even works! I think the youngest we’ve carried so far has been seven years old and the oldest, well, let’s just say that they were in or near their seventh decade. We have a raffle on the way back, with stunning rugby related prizes (Jason’s book was a first prize one week, Will Carling’s the booby prize the next). If the coach is full, such as Rotherham last year, you’ll get some money back. So if you’re a tight fisted git you might even come back with more money than you started with!

Join us ......
If you want to join us on any of the remaining coach trips then either ring me at home on 020 8643 2145 between 7 and 9 pm weekday evenings or e-mail me on will@diamondgeezers.org.uk Don’t worry if you lose my number, it’s on the walls of most of the loos at Stoop. Or better still, come up to me in the bar before or after a game, I’m the one, when I was a lot younger, that looked like James Garner. I’m changing my e-mail address for next season as there’s a poor Texan student who's getting fed up with redirecting back my mail. I did invite him to a game, but he gave a lame excuse about it being too far to travel. Americans! Pah!