The Edinburgh Tour 1999

Last season CW's ran a very successful tour to Edinburgh, Scotland's cosmopolitan capitol. Tony Kitchener and Mark Kitchener putting in a lot of hard work. The tour started off with a very special evening down at Burbages Lane. The initial selecting of the tour Judges and Tour Snitches. Michael Thatcher was duly appointed senior Judge and was the first one to have to wear the wig. Mark Ratley and Tony Kitchener nominated as junior judges. There followed much rivalry and as Mark Ratley issued the challenge to Ady Nightingale for a spot of naked arm wrestling.
This was A very fraught battle with Ady not wanting to let Ratleys reputation get to him. The result was arrived at after much strain on both part to leave Ady very aware of Ratleys strength. There was a lot of phoning going on as there was a spare place going on the tour that was paid for with the first one to accept the lucky guy who was touring for free. The first person at the club packed was Dave Ellis who played a very big part in the second game ( 2 Minutes).
After much drinking the tour got on its way with the bus arriving and everyone getting on for the trip Northbound. After stopping at one of the last services on the M6 where in the dead of the night the services were obviously not ready for the CW's RFC. Mind you Russell Hughes was found still asleep after the whole stop. By this time the toilet on the coach was well beyond the Maximum mark and was already making an appearance onto the floor.
After a drive all the way into Scotland during the night we arrived fit and raring to go at Edinburgh academicals at 7.45 in the morning. A freshen up and some food was in order. The directions to the local bakery were obtained and the tour party set on its way. The nearest cafe was found and the sign outside stated that they opened at 8.00 am. Great people thought but if you arrived at work to find 30 hungry rugby players would you open the door. It was decided at 8.15 that they were not going to open so another Batch bar was located. Great food and most people started to show signs of recovery so we went back to the Academicals club house and people that were still hungry eat up the left over from last nights party.
By this time people were beginning to fatigue so the clubhouse was a mess of players attempting to get a little bit more sleep to prepare them for the game. The time of 11 o'clock was getting near which was kick off time and players were starting to get mentally prepared for the game. We then all jumped onto the Coach as we were going to get a look at the Hotel and Stuart Whitehouse had arrived from the hotel as he had arrived Thursday night from Germany complete with his bottle of Tequila.
The hotel was found in Mussellburgh and nice enough Burger King was part of the Hotel. By this time Peter van Housenburglar from Spain was keen to find out where we were playing. Strange for a South African but well. At this we all dumped bags and got back on to the coach to get to the game. When we arrived the team we were playing were arriving and as the opposition were weighed up it seemed strange that the Sunday game was against Veterans and this team seemed old enough. It was even joked that they had asked Mick Thatcher to play and he declined because he felt too young. Anyway the game began with the Welsh showing there youth and better technique cruising to at the end an easy victory against less organised opposition. After the game the tour games began with tequila being the tour forfeit. I'm assured by the chief judge that tequila and jelly sweets do not go together. It was also where tour man of the year gave the club its first chant of the "Camel Dance"
After this joviality we all went back for our first look at the tour rooms. It would probably be the only sober view that we would get and that needed to be remembered so when we arrived back from a night out on the Grass Market we would know where to go. This proved to be a very complicated affair with people being put about 10 in one room. 2 in the next and none in the room after that. After a great deal of complications everything was arranged and people had their rooms. Mind you how many people made it back to the correct rooms I'm not quite sure of.