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How I stopped worrying...
By Brodie October 1 2002
This is a tale of one boy, thirty men playing with an odd shaped ball and the hoards of people I met that fateful day.It was September the twelfth 1987, four days before my ninth birthday. My Aunty and Uncle came round and offered me what turned out to be the best present I had in a long time.

I was doing nothing special that Saturday so I agreed to go to Leicester to watch some game I had never heard of called 'Rugby'. A team nicknamed the Tigers would be playing a team from somewhere called Bath. I had never heard of the place but thought the name sounded funny.

I was presented with a green, red and white scarf and told to cheer when the team wearing those colours ran out. We arrived at Welford Road about an hour before kick-off, the place was swarming with people because of the high profile nature of the game. Four days before the Tigers had thrashed Nuneaton 52 - 0 and the anticipation amongst the crowd was electric.

We sat in the old members stand and I was in awe of the place, I had never been in a place with so many people at once, it was incredible. The actual match is a bit of a blur, being 15 years and many, many pints ago the old memory isn't what it used to be. The one thing I do remember is Tigers scoring a try, everyone including myself leapt to there feet to cheer and celebrate.

I can't remember who scored, my Tigers Tale tells me Dexter, Cusworth and Harris scored that day. Hopefully I was cheering the great man himself! Tigers won day 24 - 13 and went on to win the very first league the next May from Wasps by a single point. (Sale were relegated!) From that moment on I was hooked, for the next season I got a membership for my birthday and a replica shirt.

In my fifteen years as a Tiger fan I have witnessed some fantastic games, Dusty Hare's final game in a Tigers shirt at Twickenham, (Spoilt by one Stuart Barnes). The cup win over Quins in '93 and almost every home and some away league and cup games since that first introduction in 1987.

I missed Paris last year but for me the greatest time I have ever had at a game was at the City ground in April. The atmosphere inside the stadium was fantastic, the beer was great and I shouted so loud and so long that I was unable to talk properly for days!

So as you can see after all I've been through with the Tigers, this early season blip is nothing. I survived the Bath dominated early nineties and I'm sure I can continue with the present squad and there difficulties. Even if we win nothing this year (God forbid!) I shall renew my season ticket and continue to be a Tiger.

LONG LIVE DEANO AND WELLSY!!!!!

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