Day 2 Portsmouth

The drive to Portsmouth was quicker than anticipated and, after booking into the the Hilton Garden Inn (salubrious name for a functional hotel), we sallied forth to explore the delights of Portsmouth and find a bar showing the Rugby World Cup. Strangely enough, in unison, a cry went up, "this looks good", although the name escapes me we had chanced upon the U.S. equivalent of a Brew Pub and, on entering, ordered up a plethora of beverages including Pumpkin Ale which was surprisingly delicious, regrettably there was no sign of the rugby world cup on TV and so our quest was continued.

After searches and a quiet sojourn to the Park to practice, which, incidentally, we managed to clear of vagrants, drunks and beggars, we mosied on down to Molly Mallones which had a reassuring sign "Rugby World Cup here", being stopped along the way by locals for our performance in the park and thanking us for clearing the park of undesireables. All was not as it seemed in "Molly's", there was much wrestling of cables and ariel leads before finally the Stade de France burst upon the screen to the tumultous applause of the English and a couple of R.S.A. supporters complete with springbok shirts. It would be fair to say we had had a couple or two or three "sherbets" by kick off and we were not alone, the national anthem and a round of "Swing Low" in various keys and melodies and we were off - to the Press Room for the Shanty sing.

The crowd at the press room were brilliant, people had come in from far and wide, Gloucester crew were in great voice, the effervescent Barry Finn in brilliant form and what a voice, if you get a chance do buy the CD "fathom this" it is not only packed with songs, Barry has a style all his own, better still get to see him perform he produces a great performance, Tom has a style very reminiscent of Stan Hugill but with, I think, a better voice (and yes I did see Stan sing live)
Charley and Judy excellent as ever and us, worse the wear for copious quantities of Good Ale sang ourselves hoarse. It seems unfair to mention a few by name when there were so many great performances so if i have missed you out I apologise, it was an excellent and very memorable session, thank you all.

Around 8pm we returned to "Mollies" for supper and to listen to the resident band who, as one might have expected, were friends of Charley. At this point I have to say that the food we had there was as good as we got anywhere, a gem of a find, such an unpretentious place fighting well above it's weight in the food department. Alan had a great voice and soon conjured up a spare fiddle for Martin who had been twitching and itching through the tunes before finally pitching in. Elevated as we were from what had now been an all day binge we belted out more songs until we were about to fall over and retired disgracefully to the sanctuary of The Hilton Garden Inn and instant sleep!