By BrianC
January 11 2006

The Italian town of Parma, which was already due to be busy this weekend, does not quite know what is going to hit it as perhaps the largest ever overseas traveling contingent of London Irish supporters descends on the town.

When the ECC draw was announced last summer many of us rejoiced in the fact that we had at long last drawn a team who were not based in France and relished the prospect of a tour to a different country. It is difficult to say how many of the Craic Team will be there, certainly into the hundreds. Given the amount of interest in this trip I feel we may even exceed the five hundred or so who made the trip to Toulouse for the HC game in 2002.

Within hours of the announcement ticket prices on the low cost airlines started to rise and many questions about Parma and how to get there were posed. In some ways it is a shame that, having done so well in earlier pool games, as a contest this game is meaningless. On the other hand it could be argued that this will enable us to get on with the serious business of partying unhindered by concerns over the game.

We are fortunate on The Craic to have our very own man on the spot in the shape of Paul Cooper (a.k.a. Coops or Cooperman), Parma is his second home. With input from some others he put together our Parma Guide. It can also be found, together with some photographs on his own website. A more detailed map of central Parma, showing the station, the stadium and a good number of the central hotels can be found here.

We are reliably informed that most of the eating, drinking and nightlife in Parma is centered on the towns main square, the Piazza Garibaldi. It is here that our operational HQ for this tour, Le Bistro, is to be found. For this weekend they have put up a marquee, which I understand is to be festooned with LI flags. Throughout the weekend it is putting on a special offer for London Irish supporters of a three course meal, including half a bottle of wine, for the bargain price of €25 (£17) per head. They have also stocked well up on AG ahead of our arrival, it will cost €4 (£2.65) a throw. To add to the atmosphere on Saturday night the Piazza will be adorned with the Olympic flame on it's way to the opening ceremony of the Torino Winter Games.

There is not really a lot to say about the game itself. We put Parma to the sword 64 - 0 when they visited us at the Madejski in November and must be clear favourites to win this match even with, one must assume, a good number of key players injured or being rested for the rigors of the Premiership. The Parma team must by now have recovered from their session at the Allied Arms. They have since shown that they are no slouches, in the last round of this competition they beat Pau 20 - 11. It is worth noting that the gate for that game was recorded as 200. If we bring as much traveling support as I suspect we may well outnumber the home based supporters by a factor of two or three to one. There is by all accounts a small marquee and bar at the ground. Given the numbers this may not be able to cope with the demands placed on it.

Some further notes for those traveling. You are advised to wrap up well. Daytime high temperatures are currently around 3C and at night it is plummeting to as low as -15C. Tickets will be sold on the gate and cost €10 for men, €5 for women, children get free admission. Friday is the Saint's day so many of the smaller shops and businesses will be closed. There is a large market in town on Saturday and a smaller one on Sunday. As if there were not enough already to help you part with your money, the January sales are in full swing. Even without our numbers arriving Parma's bars and restaurants were expected to be very busy this weekend.

There will not be a webcast. If previous form holds good, there will also be no live score updates anywhere on the web..... except for here that is. We will have SMS score updates from the ground posted here as they happen.

After a long wait it is now time to paint the town of Parma green. Hopefully we shall do so with a comfortable victory to celebrate.