To Twickenham last weekend to see the (rugby union) cup final between Leicester Tigers and London Irish. My sympathies were not really engaged, though I had a sneaking sympathy for Irish as the underdogs. It was a chilly, windy evening, though largely sunny, and the match was much more exciting than the 10 - 9 scoreline (in Leicester's favour) would suggest.
Below: the Leicester mascot struts his stuff before the match; Delon Armitage misses one of several kicks, any of which would have been enough to secure the match; and an easy line-out win for the Tigers.
The mascot is cute although it has no whiskers! Don't tell me it is for security reasons! But I agree that it may be nicer for cuddling sessions.
Yesterday, when I read this, I wondered why their mascot is was a tiger. I was supposing it could be due to their sponsor and I went check out on their website (leicestertigers dot com). In fact, they took up the name in 1885 because one journalist wrote then that "the tiger stripes were keeping together", and they had striped shirts too.
Anyway, there is a picture of the 1893-1894 Tigers, and 8 (a ninth being not visible) of them had great whiskers, and all three managers too.
Posted by: glo | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 01:09 AM
Fast forward a week and we arrive in Edinburgh, where the Cornflowers were having a double celebration in an Italian restaurant (no. 1 daughter timed her arrival 20 years ago to coincide with our wedding anniversary). The place was hooching with jolly, excited Irish rugby fans having lunch before the big match, the potential tongue-twister between Leicester and Leinster. The English fans must have used a different guide book, no sign of them. Being too mean to pay for satellite TV I followed by radio as the Dubliners edged it 19-16.
Posted by: Mr Cornflower | Sunday, 24 May 2009 at 10:12 PM