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April 17, 2010

Tigers Tour Blog

Day 1

After meeting at 9.45am bright eyed and busy tailed, the Lurgan mob headed off to Belfast to catch the HSS to Stranraer, foot passengers safely boarded, all settled down with some grub and enjoyed the beginning of the trip on board a cramped HSS.  It wasn’t long until adults were rounding up the kids (or was it the other way round) to head onto the bus and begin the journey to Glasgow.  Clen Mackenzie was our pilot and we arrived in comfort and good time.  This allowed the boys to play the first couple of rounds of their 6 nations tag championships – more on that later.  The local park was the arena for said matches and the boys took a quick comfort break before heading onto Firhill the home of Glasgow Warriors Rugby.  There was a reasonable crowd and a good atmosphere but sadly the boys were unable to cheer the Ulster boys to victory as Glasgow came out eventual and deserved winners.  The Ulster boys signed jerseys and flags belonging to the mob at the front of the stand before we headed onto our accommodation Aauchengillen, were the boys got comfortable and bedded down for the night(NOT!)

Day 2

Most didn’t sleep at all but for some it was a 6.45amish start, shower and down for brekkie, there were some plans for an early morning jog but i believe only Richard Patterson braved the early morning chill.  Next we headed off for the main part of the tour – our rugby matches against.... Garnock RFC.  Both under 11s and 12s were victorious and both matches turned out to be highly entertaining affairs with some great rugby played under compromise law variations.  Lunch was provided at a local pub and the boys were able to exchange pleasantries with our Scottish opposition.  A half hour journey back to base was followed by some orienteering led by Noel which was won by team Ireland.  Afterwards the boys tackled the fort – a bit of an obstacle course and returned to get stuck into a well earned tea.  In the evening the group including the more adventurous adults went down the grass sledge run and despite several near misses (caught on camera) nobody was seriously injured. As our weekend away begins to draw to a close - the group has moved outdoors to the camp fire with a couple of guitars - the sounds are truely horrendous!

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