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 UNNECESSARY WASTED JOURNEY FOR ROYALS AND FANSAS Reading Guide suspected would be the case, the Royals' game at Doncaster was postponed because of a frozen pitch. The referee's decision after an inspection on Friday that the pitch would be playable proved wildly - and obviously - optimistic in view of a weather forecast of -7c degrees overnight in Yorkshire with snow due to move in during the afternoon. The Keep Moat, although a smart new stadium, has no undersoil heating, and despite Donny's best efforts to double-cover it during the week, the weather won. The Royals team was already in Yorkshire overnight, and more than 600 Reading fans were well on their way north when the match was called off. In the circumstances it was probably the best thing, because whilst it's frustrating that the team would hopefully have clicked into top gear and collected three more points, their safety and that of the travelling fans was paramount. The journey home after the game would have been a nightmare in view of the well-forecast heavy snowstorm which blanketed the centre of England during the evening. As it was, with diehard football fans, many detoured to avoid a wasted afternoon and took in another match, most heading for the Hawthorns where West Brom were facing Swansea. With Nicky Shorey and Simon Cox appearing for the Baggies - Shane Long is out injured - and Gylfi Sigurdsson and Leroy Lita in a Swans squad managed by Brendan Rodgers there was more than a tinge of Royalty about. And it was Gylfi who stole the show, scoring the first, and setting up the second in Swansea's 2-1 win - and heading one off the line for good measure.  TIME FOR A FUR COAT - IT WAS ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT!THE weather forecast, for once, was spot-on as the Thames Valley joined most of the country in a sizeable helping of snow overnight last night. The snow showers along the East coast and coming in from the West overnight Friday didn't reach us, and Saturday daytime, as promised, was sunny, cold and dry. The Met Office gave us plenty of warning that there would be moderate to heavy snowfall on Saturday night and into Sunday morning - and so it proved. They issued a Grade 2 "yellow" severe weather warning and advised the public to take extra care, because there was going to be some disruption, particularly to travel. The fact it was so well predicted, and that the worst of it was first thing on Sunday, brought a sigh of relief at Reading Borough Council, who were caught badly on the hop two years ago with the last heavy snowfall. At least there will not be so much traffic on the roads, and they have plenty of warning to prepare for snow clearance and salting, particularly on the local hills. Last time, few of the hills in Caversham or Tilehurst were passable overnight, and embarrassingly, Castle Hill, 100 yards from the Council offices, was also blocked for several hours - although in fairness, the blizzard was severe, and came during a weekday tea-time rush-hour. 
 TOM'S BOOT WRAPS IT UP FOR IRISH BUT LEICESTER ALSO WINLONDON Irish warmed up their fans on the coldest day of the winter by grinding out a hard-earned victory over old foes Gloucester, but it was not enough to take them into the semi-finals of the LV= Anglo-Welsh Cup. To go through to the final four, the Exiles had to win, while group leaders Leicester had to lose to Newcastle. In reality that was very unlikely to happen, and Leicester's 24-13 win sealed the Exiles' fate. However, there will be plenty to encourage coach Toby Booth about the way the Irish went about their task. They did not concede as many penalties as they have done recently, and although they leaked two tries, their defence looked generally solid, and they always had their noses in front from the moment Tom Homer kicked them into a 2nd minute 3-0 lead. By half-time Homer (pictured) had kicked two more penalties, and although he had a rare miss from the conversion of Brian Blaney's 7th minute try, the Irish led 14-0 at the break. They had to withstand a Gloucester revival, with two tries by impressive debutant Ian Clark and a conversion and penalty by Mike Tindall, but three more Homer penalties kept it safe. 
 PLANNING THE CRAIC HAS IRISH GUYS SMILING AGAINAFTER the disappointment of elimination from the Heineken European Cup, London Irish have tried to keep spirits up by finalising plans for this year's St Patrick's Party game. The 2012 opponents on Sunday 25th March, will be Leicester Tigers - and there could hardly be a tougher test than the reigning Aviva Premiership champions. It's always the biggest home attendance of the Exiles' season, with usually around 20,000 fans packing the Mad Stad. The attraction is not only the rugby, but the festival which surrounds the game, with supporters encouraged to come in fancy dress - this year the fan adjudged to be best-dressed will announce the team out before the game. And as usual there is top class music before and after the game. The Exiles' favourite band, the BibleCode Sundays, will perform on the pitch before the game and on the stage in the village after the game, along with another favourite of the Irish faithful, girl band Fanfair. The Paul Bowen Band and The Reels will also play in the village with entertainment for all the family from midday - and of course Digger will be there to pose for pictures while doing his rounds. TICKET DETAILS or call 0844 249 1871.  MAC NAMES NAMES ON THOSE WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN ROYALSTHE fans and the media - including Reading Guide! - had a fine old time playing guessing games during the transfer window, especially after the revelation about a new majority shareholder for the club apparently willing to invest. In a candid interview, Royals boss Brian McDermott has revealed the names of some of those who "got away" and why they did so. He's happy to have brought in Karl Sheppard - before the financial boost - and then Jason Roberts, Tomasz Cywka and Matthew Connolly. He'd already signed keepers Alex McCarthy and Mikkel Andersen to new long-term contracts and then added the crucial signature of Jimmy Kebe on a new contract. So in his words, it was a "good window" for McDermott. But he would also have liked to loan Wayne Bridge from Manchester City, on the same sort of wonderful bonus that Cardiff enjoyed last season when City continued to pay the bulk of Craig Bellamy's wages. Bridge went to Sunderland, and Reading could not compete with that, and nor could they with another main target, Keith Andrews, who moved from Blackburn to West Brom. There was a strong rumour on deadline day that Brighton's Craig Mackail-Smith might make iot to the Mad Stad two years after Royals first tried to sign him from Peterborough, but McDermott said: "He would be very, very expensive so we didn't follow through, and nor did we on Nicky Maynard, who went to West Ham for three-and-a-half years and a lot of money." Read the full story from the club website.  QPR'S CONNOLLY IS ROYALS' ONLY DEADLINE DAY LOAN SIGNINGWITH the chance, at last, to strengthen the squad with some serious investment, Reading boss Brian McDermott and director of football Nick Hammond used the past week to good advantage. With Karl Sheppard, Jason Roberts and Tomasz Cywka already in the bag, they were joined on deadline day by QPR's England Under-21 defender Matthew Connolly, who is on loan until the end of the season. The former Arsenal junior will undoubtedly have had a recommendation from Royals' other ex-QPR players, Kaspars Gorkss and Mikele Leigertwood - he played 30-odd games alongside Gorkss in QPR's promotion-winning side last season. But despite a flurry of rumours - Craig Mackail-Smith, Ryan Bertrand, Keith Andrews and Jason Pearce - the transfer window closed without further activity. Royals, however, point out they can still arrange loans between 8th February and 22nd March, supposedly on an "emergency" basis but everyone walks over that terminology, so there could yet be more strengthening on that basis if the "new" Royals don't gel.  TOP ORCHESTRA WILL PLAY AT QUEEN ANNE'SQUEEN Anne's School in Caversham will host the internationally-famous Orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on Tuesday 7th February. The orchestra, known for its fresh and brilliant interpretations of the world’s most beautiful classical music, will perform from their impressive repertoire of Handel, Britten, Elgar, Mozart and Bach. The public concert, starting at 7.30pm is exclusively available in this intimate setting for only £20. The ticket price includes an opportunity to meet the orchestra and a free glass of champagne. The Academy travel widely, bringing their vivid and polished sound to venues huge and small. Their heritage and roots are in the church of St Martin in the Fields, London but their mission is to bring their unique interpretation of classical music to all parts of the world. John Padley, Director of Music at Queen Anne’s says: “We are delighted to welcome such a world class orchestra to Reading. The musicians from Orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields will be working with students from Queen Anne’s as part of the event as this is a major part of their outreach and commitment to raising the profile and interest in music and young musicians in particular.” To reserve your tickets, priced at only £20, please telephone 0118 918 7336 or claire.richards@qas.org.uk or via this link  HOTELS IN READING - IF you need a hotel room in Reading, the UK - or anywhere in the world - our discount booking service is the answer. Click here for Reading Guide's own link to LateRooms.com®. Availability and prices are updated daily, the prices per room not per person, and there's no booking fee. NOTE: If you make future bookings please do so from this link.
  AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...THE Reading-based Roves and Roams organisation generates events and publications that support and communicate awareness of contemporary art in the south east. And on Tuesday 7th February they are co-promoting an event with OVADA – Oxford’s visual arts agency - featuring American live artist Anya Liftig and Dr Tracey Warr - editor of The Artists Body. The remarkable Liftig (pictured) has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally including shows at TATE Modern, Art Basel Miami, Performance Space, and Center for Performance Research. Her performance work addresses themes of self-doubt, failure, animal/human intimacy cultural hybridization, feminism and physical comedy. Tracey Warr is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art Theory at Oxford Brookes University. She has curated and written about a range of international artists including James Turrell, Marina Abramovic, London Fieldworks and Marcus Coates. Her publications include The Artist’s Body (Phaidon, 2000). Tracey and Anya will also join roves and roams and OVADA in a Q&A. The evening begins at 6.30pm, there’s a free bar and it's free entry with a pre-booked reservation ticket. The venue is OVADA’s new warehouse at 14A Osney Lane in Oxford. More about Roves and Roams. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
