Stradey Park Nostalgia |
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PritchyTheScarlet
Veteran Young Munster 2004 - Neyland RFC Tour Joined: 29 November 2012 Location: Neyland đź–¤ Status: Offline Points: 3874 |
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Posted: 15 January 2016 at 12:03am |
Earlier on today, my dad changed his Facebook profile picture to a photo of me sitting on the bars just in front of the score board at Stradey, holding one of those plastic cards which read 'Cais' (they were handing them out before the game). It was taken on one of those old cameras where, when printed, displays the date in the bottom left/right hand corner. After seeing the date, I wanted to find out what game this was, it turns out that it was when we lost 21-29 to Connacht, I do recollect us being very poor that day. But the main thing that I got from seeing that picture for the first time in about 10 years, was a lot of nostalgia! It brought me back to the good old Stradey days, get home from primary school, get changed, head up to Stradey with my dad, Mark, and grandad, Graham, end up parking outside someone's house, (where we probably shouldn't have!), make the short walk to the ground, buy our tickets, and then it was those dreaded steps to get up to the Tanner Bank End, where we would stand (me usually sitting on the bar, until I had a numb backside!) in the identical spot for every game, apart from the 2007 Heineken Cup quarter final against Munster, when the scoreboard end was packed with Munster fans (after the game, one of their supporters gave me his flag, I still have it in my bedroom to this day, I'll never forget that.) I could never understand why we weren't season ticket holders, we would attend EVERY game without fail, I just loved it, the Friday night rugby, the Saturday afternoon European rugby, the Dinky Donuts at half time, using the scoreboard as shelter when it bucketed down! And all of this was when I was under 10, I time when you'd think I'd be home on the Nintendo etc, ever since watching our first home game as a region in 2003, to walking down those steps after we'd beaten Ulster 23-16 to win the Celtic League, and hearing Monroe Walters on the tannoy saying "could Vernon Cooper come here please" (to collect the trophy), like all of us loyal Scarlets supporters do, I have so many great memories of Stradey. Me and my best mate, also called Tom, used to attend the summer rugby camps, which took place on the training pitch just behind Stradey, it was amazing to know that I had been on the same turf as the likes of Stepehen Jones, Dwayne Peel, Daf James, Regan King and Barry Davies to name very few. We would travel up from Neyland to spend a day at Stradey, that's my kind of heaven.
I was in attendance for so many thrilling games at Stradey, but if I had to pick one out, it would be the aforementioned European 1/4 final against Munster, that day was just special, we had to park so far away from Stradey, due to the sheer number of people wanting to go to the game, it took about 15 minutes to walk to the ground! The atmosphere was indescribable, have never seen anything like it since, although the the semi final at the Walkers Stadium comes pretty close! What a great weekend that was as well! I was told before we left that people from Llanelli knew how to drink, and boy did I see that put into practice! 2007 was the magical season for us. Memories of French sides coming to Stradey, with their supporters playing the trumpet for 80 minutes, we had some great tussles with Toulouse, also Scottish sides coming to Stradey, bringing 0 supporters down! . Don't get me wrong, Parc y Scarlets is a fantastic, modern stadium, but it will never come near to Stradey. The only negative from this, you look back at pictures/videos of games at Stradey, and you think "where have the supporters gone?", I believe that if half of the regulars at Stradey became regulars at Y Parc, we would be getting close to 10000 every game. But I believe that with Jonesy in control of our backs, we can return to playing like the Scarlets of old, proper rugby, let the ball do the work. Yma o Hyd. I'm still here. Edited by PritchyTheScarlet - 15 January 2016 at 12:07am |
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“Gareth Edwards just ran 30 yards and got a Knighthood, I sidestepped five players and got arthritis in both knees.” - Benny
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ScarletSpiderman
Veteran Joined: 20 August 2012 Location: Milford Haven Status: Offline Points: 2553 |
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That date takes me back. My 20th birthday, and my first Scarlets game at Stradey. Wales V England in a world cup or euro qualifier that day too.
Hopefully there will be a generation of kids who will be looking back at their photos in ten years time and saying, 'Wow look how young I was there standing by Grav's statue. Oh how those were the days'.
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roy munster
Veteran Joined: 30 August 2010 Status: Offline Points: 15682 |
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ahhh happy days
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ROYMOND MUNTER MBE (FOR SERVICES TO THE COMBOVER)
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TonduTurk
Veteran "Views my own" Joined: 15 September 2004 Location: Wales Status: Offline Points: 7627 |
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great stuff |
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