Queens Park Rangers v Blackburn Rovers

HOOPS
Columnist
THE ‘R’ GENERATION FANSITE WRITER PENS HIS NEW
COLUMN FOR THE OFFICIAL MATCHDAY PROGRAMMME…
t stings a little bit that I’ve not been
I able to make it to the Kiyan Prince
Foundation Stadium recently.
I can hardly moan about this. If I was dedicated
enough or stopped being a scrounging student
and got a proper job, or frankly sorted my
priorities out, I’d be hopping on the train from
Cardiff to London, or Cardiff to Birmingham, or
Cardiff to whichever end of the country that
the Super Hoops lead me to.
The shining example of this is “Grandad”. Known
to some as “Sombrero Guy”, this diehard fan
(usually found in the South Africa Road Stand
gleefully winding up the away following)
journeyed to Morocco with a QPR shirt, an
appropriately red sombrero, and a poncho
bearing the country’s flag, to outdo every single
one of us in his support of Ilias Chair.
It was lovely to see that he got to meet our
No.10, and I did feel a slight pang of guilt at the
fact that, compared to his international jaunt,
I didn’t even bother to make the trip to West
Brom away!
But life is life, and post-lockdown life is a big
game of trying to cover as many bases of
normality as possible. I made the journey up to
Manchester last weekend to meet up with some
friends and see the excellent Orla Gartland
(Google her) in concert. I booked the tickets as
lockdown was beginning to lift, and it felt like it
might be the first time since early 2020 that the
event wouldn’t get cancelled.
At this point you’d be forgiven for thinking, ‘who
even is this Ben guy, and why does he think I care
about his trip to Manchester?’
The answer is: in the grand scheme of the
universe, I’m nobody important, but my trip to
Manchester is an example of how, after nearly
two years of having precious little to do beyond
sitting in the living room and twiddling our
thumbs, we’re now overwhelmed with choice.
They’re the same choices as we had before
lockdown; do I go to this gig or that club night,
should I have dinner with this friend or that
relative, will I go to this QPR game or that
concert in Manchester? But now each of the
options seems all the more enticing.
Even if it wasn’t a straight choice between QPR
and the concert in this instance, these tough
decisions don’t feel frustrating at the moment -
they feel brilliant.
I couldn’t be more grateful that, in the past
few months, QPR matches have gone from an
unreachable, locked-away spectacle, to one of
the many different events that I’m privileged
enough to be torn between attending.
The concert was great - but I’m looking forward
to getting my act together and choosing QPR
whenever I can in the future!
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