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The Deadwood Stage
Nov. 30th, 2014 09:52 pmTo MK Theatre on Friday night for Calamity Jane. I was in about the fifth row from the front of the stalls. I think I may have been a bit too near the orchestra because they drowned out the lyrics of a couple of the musical numbers. Jodie Prenger was excellent as Calamity though, ably supported by Tom Lister as Wild Bill Hickok and Phoebe Street as Katie Brown. Rob Delaney was hilarious as Francis Fryer. It pained me to shun the bags of chocs on offer on the little cart by the entrance and just buy a bottle of water, but duty called and I knew I'd be getting a substantial dinner yesterday.
Yesterday I joined the organiser and four other lucky raffle winners in hospitality at Luton v Mansfield. We met up outside the ground soon after noon, and hung around introducing ourselves to each other and making the odd bit of small talk until we got our cue to make our way to the club's main reception round the back of the stadium.
Through the entrance, we were led up to a room, with trophies and memorabilia in wooden glass-fronted cupboards on the walls, laid out with about a dozen dining tables, bought drinks at the bar (again water for me) and sat around our table chatting while Charlton v Ipswich showed on a big screen above us, until it was time to go for our stadium tour. Just before we went into the home dressing room we met manager John Still and all said hello - one of our party said "Thanks for everything, John" - before he disappeared through a door. The home dressing room had motivational slogans printed in bright orange on signs above the pegs; all the outfield players' shirts were hanging on their pegs, while goalie Mark Tyler's peg had his civvy clothes on (he was already on the pitch warming up). I noticed a piece of paper on a table, on which some of the players were having a competition predicting the results of some of the day's games. From there we went out to pitchside, and queued among the other groups of sponsors to have a group photo taken on the pitch.
Then it was back to the room for carvery lunch. Each table was called up in turn to get food from the hotplate - slices of beef, turkey or both and assorted veg, including roast potatoes and roast parsnip. Delicious, as was dessert - lemon tart, which was brought to us at table.
We had seats in the VIP box, almost overlooking the halfway line, though there was a pylon in front of the pitch just to the right of us. The others had all been saying before the game that they were going to vote Paul Benson as our Sponsors' Man of the Match, because he's been a solid performer for the Hatters - a real Steady Eddie who made a valuable contribution to last season's promotion - but apparently he'd been getting a fearful slating on some online LTFC forums. To our delight, on 27 minutes after a goalmouth scramble Benno scored, but, alas, soon afterwards he was stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle (in the evening we'd hear it was a broken leg). In the second half Shaun Whalley scored two brilliant goals - a cross shot from out wide and a driving effort from the edge of the box into the top corner - to wrap the game up. A couple of us had gone for a 3-1 win in the hospitality room prediction competition and Mansfield tantalised us by coming close a couple of times, Luton also had a couple more chances, but it stayed 3-0.
Afterwards there were presentations in the room. After the mascots had their photos taken with man of the match Shaun Whalley and were presented with framed programmes and team autographs, it was the turn of one of ours (we drew squares of paper for the honour, Craig won) to present Shaun his MoM trophy and receive a team shirt signed by the squad. For a while we all had fun trying to decipher the autographs (most of the players had helped by writing their numbers next to their signatures) then Craig suggested we auction the shirt for Supporters of Luton Youth Development; that was agreed on all round.
Then I had to say my goodbyes and walk up to town for the bus while the others were staying on for a Christmas party being held in the same room. It would just have been pointless my going while I'm only drinking water, and with no late evening buses home, a hotel room for the night or taxi all the way back would just have been too expensive on top of all the expenditure that December brings (which in my case includes my car's annual service).
Easy day today, retro chart shows, Carry On Again Doctor on ITV and excellent roast chicken and Christmas pud at the Axe.
Yesterday I joined the organiser and four other lucky raffle winners in hospitality at Luton v Mansfield. We met up outside the ground soon after noon, and hung around introducing ourselves to each other and making the odd bit of small talk until we got our cue to make our way to the club's main reception round the back of the stadium.
Through the entrance, we were led up to a room, with trophies and memorabilia in wooden glass-fronted cupboards on the walls, laid out with about a dozen dining tables, bought drinks at the bar (again water for me) and sat around our table chatting while Charlton v Ipswich showed on a big screen above us, until it was time to go for our stadium tour. Just before we went into the home dressing room we met manager John Still and all said hello - one of our party said "Thanks for everything, John" - before he disappeared through a door. The home dressing room had motivational slogans printed in bright orange on signs above the pegs; all the outfield players' shirts were hanging on their pegs, while goalie Mark Tyler's peg had his civvy clothes on (he was already on the pitch warming up). I noticed a piece of paper on a table, on which some of the players were having a competition predicting the results of some of the day's games. From there we went out to pitchside, and queued among the other groups of sponsors to have a group photo taken on the pitch.
Then it was back to the room for carvery lunch. Each table was called up in turn to get food from the hotplate - slices of beef, turkey or both and assorted veg, including roast potatoes and roast parsnip. Delicious, as was dessert - lemon tart, which was brought to us at table.
We had seats in the VIP box, almost overlooking the halfway line, though there was a pylon in front of the pitch just to the right of us. The others had all been saying before the game that they were going to vote Paul Benson as our Sponsors' Man of the Match, because he's been a solid performer for the Hatters - a real Steady Eddie who made a valuable contribution to last season's promotion - but apparently he'd been getting a fearful slating on some online LTFC forums. To our delight, on 27 minutes after a goalmouth scramble Benno scored, but, alas, soon afterwards he was stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle (in the evening we'd hear it was a broken leg). In the second half Shaun Whalley scored two brilliant goals - a cross shot from out wide and a driving effort from the edge of the box into the top corner - to wrap the game up. A couple of us had gone for a 3-1 win in the hospitality room prediction competition and Mansfield tantalised us by coming close a couple of times, Luton also had a couple more chances, but it stayed 3-0.
Afterwards there were presentations in the room. After the mascots had their photos taken with man of the match Shaun Whalley and were presented with framed programmes and team autographs, it was the turn of one of ours (we drew squares of paper for the honour, Craig won) to present Shaun his MoM trophy and receive a team shirt signed by the squad. For a while we all had fun trying to decipher the autographs (most of the players had helped by writing their numbers next to their signatures) then Craig suggested we auction the shirt for Supporters of Luton Youth Development; that was agreed on all round.
Then I had to say my goodbyes and walk up to town for the bus while the others were staying on for a Christmas party being held in the same room. It would just have been pointless my going while I'm only drinking water, and with no late evening buses home, a hotel room for the night or taxi all the way back would just have been too expensive on top of all the expenditure that December brings (which in my case includes my car's annual service).
Easy day today, retro chart shows, Carry On Again Doctor on ITV and excellent roast chicken and Christmas pud at the Axe.
