Monday 29th October 2007
Newcastle, our first Guinness ‘A’ opponents, would be a tough challenge but all the boys were focussed and, as Rob and Ali keep reminding us, we have a real opportunity to do well in this competition. With a 7.30 pm kick off this explains why we are allowed a ‘lie in’. Wanderers pulled off a convincing 25-13 win and although we were not able to bag the fourth try bonus point with four points on the board we were off to a flying start in the competition. A late finish but not too many beers as Tuesday’s training is only a few hours away!  

Tuesday 30th October 2007
Back to the usual wake up time of 7.00 am with a recovery session at Cannons gym. As well as the structured work out it’s a great opportunity to have a gossip with the lads about the Monday night game. I promise, Tim, we really do only stay in the Jacuzzi for 3 minutes! “Who made the big hits?” “What was the best try?” “Who might be in the first team on Saturday?” All very important questions but this week we had another pressing issue to resolve. The Academy had been asked to organise a Halloween Party at the Club on Saturday, 3rd November and with only four days to go, we had been hit with the bombshell that only 14 tickets had been sold!

Wednesday 31st October 2007
We all knew that we’d have to work extremely hard outside of training to pull this out of the bag and make the evening a success. Barnabus, or ‘Barney’ as he is known in the Acad, soon picked everyone’s spirits up and a ‘sales and marketing’ campaign was launched. Of course in these situations you have to capitalize on your strengths and local boy Courtney Lawes, with all the connections, ended up as our No. 1 salesperson selling 30 tickets – 29 of them to girls! With their suave good looks, charm and keen wit, David Smith, Will Harries and James Cannon were other success stories in our campaign and after spending a large part of Wednesday evening canvassing the Northampton party hot spots, ticket sales were up to 150 and things were looking brighter.

Thursday 1st November/Friday 2nd November 2007
On Thursday and Friday, we continued our efforts to drum up ticket sales and the mood was very positive. We all wanted the evening to be a success, especially as any profits would be passed to the Chris Kokta Memorial Trust. Decorations were purchased, fancy dress costumes organised and, most importantly, the party punch recipe finalized and sampled!

Saturday 3rd November 2007
Saturday – the big day had arrived. The Saints set the tone with a good 10-try win over Pertemps Bees. By 3pm, with 140 tickets sold, we turned our attention to preparing the venue – the Stutridge Suite. Phil Hoy was appointed ‘Decorations Manager’ and having a second row at your disposal to hang up balloons and stick up cobwebs is certainly very useful. RIP gravestones and skeletons all helped to create the atmosphere and everything was ready by the time our first guests arrived at 7.30pm.
 
Everyone was greeted by Barney, or should I say ‘The White Knight Ghost’, and Kev who was our doorman aka ‘bouncer’ for the evening. After a cup of our finest Halloween punch everyone’s inhibitions soon disappeared and by 9pm the dance floor was packed with a fine array of Devils, Witches, Mummies and Monsters all wanting to strut their stuff to the sounds of the excellent DJ. Our friendly bar staff helped the party go with a swing and we had guest appearances from Bernie the dog, Toops, Dylan, Neil Starling and Mark Easter.

With the party in full swing I managed to catch up with Rob Hunter and although I could detect some surprise in his voice he was full of praise for the success of the evening. His 11 Academy boys, with some help along the way, had managed to pull it off in the end and turn round Tuesday’s ‘no hope’ situation into a well supported event.  It had proved a good learning curve for us all and I feel that if we did this again we wouldn’t be leaving things until the last week!

Sunday 4th November 2007
Time to reflect and sleep! Successful party, enjoyable evening and most importantly a profit for the Chris Kokta trust.