Rugby and Cricket News
Living With The Lions Sports Travel

We are very excited to hear that our very own Lions host, Robert Jones (Wales and Lions) has been asked to join a team of 15 ex-Wales captains to climb Kilimanjaro this September. Anoether of our previous hosts Ieuan Evans will also be making the climb and we wish them both all their best with their charitable endeavours. When I have more news about the charities we will place the links on here.

Good luck training!

Its early days at the moment but there is talk of an LWTL 2009 Lions reunion taking place before the Wales v England game on Friday 4 February, 2011. Watch this space for more news, but if all goes well there will be a pre-match party before the game and hopefully maybe even a game to watch! Rob Jones and John Bentley have both offered to dust off their boots so at this stage, anything looks possible!

This story pretty much sums up teh situation as it is happening in SOuth AFrica around the football world cup. OUr experience tells us that while hotels are forced into dealing with official accommodation banks such as Match, the situation is not going to go away. We would like to think that one day the poor hoteliers will see the sense of keeping their own hotels in their control and avoid this terrible situation. This is a repeat of the situation in France 98, Australia Rugby World Cup 2003, and the Lions in 2005 and last year. I suspecty the RWC 2011 will go exactly the same way and I only hope that London hotels do not go the same way, though news is that all of the large London hotels are already contracted to LOCOG. See this link for todays new…http://www.meetpie.com/Modules/NewsModule/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=13061

Living With The Lions will be focussing on 4 tours for the 2011 Six Nations.

England v Wales
England v Ireland (Back at Lansdown Road)
Wales v Italy
Wales v France

After the success of another busy 6 Nations for supporters and corporate hospitality clients alike, Patrick recently visited a number of hotels in Dublin with a view to securing the best accommodation and hospitality facilities within a short walk from the newly refurbished Lansdowne Road stadium. The Aviva Stadium, as it will be known, looked really impressive and Patrick was pleased to find some escellent venues very close to hand. We know that everyone is going to want to see Ireland v England in the 6 Nations next year after 3 fantastic seasons at the impressive Croke Park and so it is important to get in early next year. The opening international match at the stadium will see Ireland host World Champions South Africa, another mouth watering prospect. Living With The Lions will be offering packages for English, Irish, South African and rugby fans in general, to these matches.

Once again the Hong Kong Sevens proves to be a successful and fun weekend for Living With The Lions! With 50+ clients out in Hong Kong there was much laughter and as always a lot of drinking involved.

Everyone seemed in high spirits on their arrival in to the Metropark on the Thursday evening and shortly after check-in we were all in the hotel bar enjoying a drink or two and planning social and sightseeing events for the weekend.

A few clients were up early the next morning for some city sightseeing where as others flew over to Macau by helicopter for an afternoon in the casinos!

John Bentley was in Carnegies on Friday evening with us for a couple of hours and there was a fair bit of drinking going on (and dancing on the bar!).  Carnegies is one of the lively bars in Wan Chai with good cheesy dancing music.  It seems to be a favourite haunt for Living With The Lions clients (and staff!)

The Rugby Sevens tournament was full of exciting games and the finalie firework display at the end was spectacular and everyone is always on a high taking in every last minute of the atmosphere and not wanting it to end!

As usual the England v Ireland match at Twickenham on 27 Feb 2010 has resulted in a shortage of hospitality packages being available. Having once sold out, we have managed to source a very limited amount of official places for the game on Saturday, so call today!

What a fantastic tour - LWTL started our tour in Durban on Christmas Eve. The rain was bucketing down but that did not dampen spirits, all the talk at the tour welcome drinks was about the cricket and how England would fair at Kingsmead in 2 days time. Everything from team selection to whether the ball would swing with the humidity…there was a buzz at the Hilton Hotel with all the press and media swarming the place. Was great to see all the Proteas at the hotel, not to mention “Wags” who took a fancy to my 2 and a half year old Callum…wasnt all bad having to rescue him from the sea of blonde. Someone who I am sure didnt appreciate Callums smile and blue eyes was “Beefy” Ian Botham who had the room right next to us on the 11th floor, no doubt he had a few sleepless nights with a young boy crying 10 feet away. The LWTL tour group had a fantastic dinner at one of Durban institutions…The Butcher Boys, wow what a steak, the first of many in my carnivorous journey through South Africa. Christmas day was spent at the Boathouse Hotel 40 minutes up the coast from Durban, what a great setting on the Indian Ocean with the sound of the waves in the background.

The Kingsmead test was a great win for the England cricket team, with Cook and Bell avoiding any further scrutiny with great knocks and setting the platform for then bowlers to scittle out the Proteas on day 4.

We then headed down to Cape Town where the weather and atmosphere was superb - I met the rest of the LWTL tour party who came out on our 1 test tour. We used 3 hotels in Cape Town, The Grand Daddy, The City Lodge Waterfront and the Cullinan. All 3 were very hospitable and the breakfasts were great to set us up for the day.

New Years Eve was at 5Flies Restaurant and the food, setting and company was first class - just a terrific way to see in 2010.

Clients had full day Cape Peninsula tour on the 2nd January which took in all the beautifull places in Cape Town on one of the most perfect days I can remember - some forgot the factor 50…

The Newlands Test was one for the history books, it ebbed and flowed with SA being in trouble on the first morning to being in total control on day 3 with a terrific know from Graeme Smith and some fierce fasdt bowling by Morkel and Steyn. It seemed a victory was certain but Collingwood, Bell and the unlikely hero Graham Onions had other ideas and managed to see through the last 5 overs to produce a fabulous draw…

Our finale dinner was upstairs at Quay 4 restaurant on the Waterfront and the mood was one of excitement and relief after England hung on so bravely, it was brilliant to see the friendships that had formed over just a few weeks and the comradery that sports tours provide. I am sure most will keep in touch for years to come and meet again somewhere else in the world - hopefully the ashes if finances allow.

On a personal note the group was an absolute pleasure to host, it was a little tricky being a South African not to get too excited when an England wicket fell but the banter and jeering was all in good fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

Heres to the Ashes tour at the end of the year, if England show as much grit and determination down under they stand a great chance of bringing the urn back to English soil.

Brett

Following the announcement that the Newcastle Falcons match against Albi would be played on the evening of Friday 15th January, the Falcons supporters have been calling in great numbers to book a long weekend in the South of France. Margaret Smithurst, an experienced tourist and the first to book her holiday, was heard to say ‘Its +4 degrees in Albi, I’ll be packing my bikini. If Living With The Lions had a longer trip I’d be going for 2 weeks.’ Others were more reserved, but David Hines, an engineer, was interested in visiting the cathedral. ‘It dates to the 13th Century, you know’ he said knowledgably but nobody was listening. Jo Overy, a travel agent was concerned. ‘I have got 3 days with this lot and 13th century or not, I think they better get a lot of wine in.’ We think she is probably right. Jo has asked Rachel to accompany her as official tour translator though while Rachel is fluent in French they may still need help with some of the Geordie accents. The trip is fast selling out but Jo has a few spaces on the bus and the weekend costs £249 for 3 nights.

Heineken Cup 2009 - Biarritz v Gloucester

Rachel spent a weekend on tour in Biarritz with the Gloucester Heineken Cup supporters. Although Gloucester lost the game she returned having had a great weekend. Biarritz is a great rugby destination and perfect for a weeked away with its beach location, fabulous weather and suberb bars and restaurants.

Certainly a change from the Shed!