Jetstream wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:13 pm
jacothelad wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 6:13 pm
horslips wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 6:06 pm
In articles I see Cecil Watson's name appearing as far back as 2007. Loads of pictures of Cecil in his blazer as well!
In 2003 I saw "The Ulster side, coached by Allen Clarke and managed by Cecil Watson, " - is that the same guy.
Who exactly is he and how or why a 20+ year involvement?
Watson is the father of Winker Watson of t.v. fame. He is a long time Ashton of Malone and his dead hand has been dragging Ulster down for decades. When the Provinces became professional, the other 3 immediately booted out the blazerati and installed professionals to run them. At Ulster, Watson and his crew of deadbeats announced that they would continue to run Ulster by committee. They often had nice overseas trips with the team and basically are anachronisms. They need to go.
I am aware that all ex Presidents ( there must be 20 or 30) got free booze at Ravenhill at every match. I assume this is continuing. It is nice to see spectator's admission money going down the throats of the blazers.
I've had the misfortune to be invited to watch a couple of matches from the Directors Box at Ravers and partake of pre-match food. The food was free of charge as part of my invitation, but as a season ticket holder, the match wasn't free.
I say "the misfortune" as, 1 the food wasn't great and 2, I i was frowned upon for getting to my feet and guldering during the match and I would much have preferred to be on the terrace.
One thing I will say though in response to the above comment about free booze, is that in my experience, it doesnt happen. Free meal yes, but booze had to be paid for by everyone, whether blazer or guest, although I and another guest were offered drinks by a couple of blazers which were paid for by them - and for the record, I declined the offers, simply because I was driving and have a simple "no drink if driving" policy even if the driving may be a couple of hours after the drinks.
In my experience some of the blazers are very quick to show hospitality at their own expense, albeit they no doubt do get perks which are probably no longer justifiable in a professional set up. I also have no doubt that some blazers remain in post for their own personal gratification and should have been shown the door years ago.
BTW, there is also one member of the committee under discussion who was and is a much respected member of this forum, albeit I don't recollect him posting mich in the past couple of years, but when he did in the past, his words carried a lot of weight.
Edit: I should add that i am unsure if free booze was a perk of post-match hospitality shown to visiting players staff and blazers, as I was never party to those, other than when invited or we gatecrashed such events at away matches, when I gratefully partook of generous hospitlaity by our opponents of the night, so I suppose the "free booze" thing probably does apply to post match hospitality