By Glen Leat
July 26 2003

Bristol were in the news again this week as they announced Richard Hill as their new head coach. As you would expect Harley Quin has an opinion on the latest events at our near neighbours. Take it away HQ...

So Richard Hill has joined Bristol to try and help them get back in to the top flight of English domestic rugby. It was interesting watching him on Points West introducing himself to his players and saying, "I'm in charge." Blimey Richard does that mean you've bought out Malcolm Pearce? The job at Bristol is tailor made for Hilly because instead of inheriting a group of over paid primadonnas he has to work with a combination of journeymen and rising hopefuls and given his coaching style is based on passion, commitment and hard work this should suit Bristol just fine.

Mind you, Hilly will have some task on his hand with the supporters. Judging by many of the idiots we see on our messageboard, who could live with relegation on the basis that they beat Bath last season, Hill will have to persuade them that a parochial approach to rugby will not ensure an early return to the Premiership.Also given that Worcester appear to be the Wolverhampton Wanderers of the rugby world and are now due a promotion, the Brisslers had better prepare themselves for failure at the first attempt.

Personally I'm saddened that Bath have never seen fit to welcome Hilly back in to our fold: he oozes the Bath rugby culture of the successful era, is loved by the fans who will never forget his contribution to our fine collection of trophies and we have been desperate for many years for a coach to show our scrum-halves how to play proper half-back play for a full 80 minutes. As Hill was a key component during Jack's first reign you would have thought the big man would have told his best No 9 to "come on board the Rowell express". Mind you, Jack is well known for not doing the obvious!

I also noticed the Points West reference to Martin Haag now being known as Martin Haig. Didn't this change of surname happen when Haagy was still playing for us a couple of years ago? I've heard rumours that a few other ex-Bath players have asked that the true pronunciation of their surnames now be recognised with Coochie Chilcott now becoming Gareth Chumley, Guzza becoming G'cott and Phil de Glanville wishing to be known as Phil Smith. Bloody ridiculous the lot of it: as far as I am concerned if Martin Haag was Haag all those years at Bath he will always be Haag!

My missus got me all excited this week as she said I would enjoy the Three Tenors. I dashed upstairs to try on my penguin suit and dickie bow, grabbed my Pavarotti's greatest hits CD and lay on the bed dreaming of a warm evening in Victoria Park with the beauty of Italian and Spanish voices drifting around the Royal Crescent. Eventually I dragged myself downstairs to the kitchen for dinner to be met by my wife holding some money. "There you go HQ", she said stuffing the money in my pocket, "that's the £30 I borrowed off you lst week." Doh!

As I'm due to fly out on my holidays in a few weeks I hope that the BA strike at Heathrow is resolved. It makes me laugh that anyone should strike over the loss of "perks" and the requirement by management for their employees to "clock in". Most of us only enjoy the perk of wages at the end of each week and a meager holiday entitlement so I wonder what the BA staff are terrified of losing. Given that most people have to work to certain standards and to agreed hours it strikes(sic) me that this is a group of workers who know that once they are electronically timed at work they will not be able to skive, nip of early or get mates to cover for them. This seems like a dispute from the Seventies and I half expected to see Red Robbo pop up on the TV. What next, rugby players refusing to play in a World Cup because they want a bigger share of the RFU financial pot? If the sporting world is not careful it will pull off one of the wings of the golden goose as it plucks off every last feather!