Eorl Crabtree Testimonial: Eorl's Blog #4

	Home / Contact
	News and Updates
	Career Statistics
	Events Diary
	Official Merchandise
	OZ10 Trip Raffle
	Eorl's Blog
	Photograph Gallery

Photo Gallery...

View this Album

Latest News...

NEW: Finale Dinner

Other News...

OZ10 Raffle Winner

Blog Issue #4: 18th January 2010

Dec 1 saw the launch of my Testimonial year with the RL Factor and to be honest it could have not gone much better, for the people who sadly missed this event it was a take on the popular hit series X factor.

The first half consisted of Giants fans, and the second half Giants and Ex-Giants players with each person singing a song of their choice. There was to be a winner from each category chosen by special judges Nathan Brown, Steve Ganson and Amy Summet

From the beginning there was a worry how this was going to go; I knew it could be fun but wasn’t sure exactly how much fun it was going to be.

Getting hold of Giants fans that would like to have a go at glorified karaoke was an easy task. We had a lot of offers and the ones that performed on the night were fantastic with the eventual winner Ashley Hirst singing Mustang Sally.

Getting hold of Giants players was a different matter!!

Jeff Wittenburg was on board straight away but only because he is very good and anyone who goes into his sandwich shop Taste Buds at Paddock know how loud he is anyway. I had to think on my feet to get some of the others to agree.

To do this I had Andrew Raleigh’s wedding as the catalyst. After a few drinks, just about every player was talking up how good they were and that they would sing. None more so than head conditioner Mark Andrews who was ready to take on the world until the next day when reality kicked in and the effects of two lager shandies wore off.

The lads that performed all, regrettably for them, agreed on that night with the exception of Andy after all it was his wedding, so I just invited him up to the rehearsal and he got roped in anyway. At that point we all knew who was singing but the there was no nerves just the excitement of dressing up and having a laugh.

That was soon to change.

At the rehearsal, it all started to sink in. All the fans were great singers with us Giants basically looking at each other realising what we had let ourselves in for. Hearing myself and the other lads we new we could be in trouble. Finding out that over five hundred tickets had been sold did not help the cause.

On the night all we could do was get out there and sing the Town Hall was full. Walking out into the Four Nations Final was not a patch on this.

All of us were out of our comfort zones doing something that we had never done before which was pretty clear to hear. The strange thing is that everyone loved getting out there its an experience that will live personally with me for ever singing in front of six hundred people is something I never thought I would say I had done, but I think the main reason for that is because of the awesome atmosphere created by the spectators.

The eventual winner from the players was Jamahl Lolesi singing UB40's Kingston Town. All the lads were brilliant, in their own way!

On the night the only thing I do regret was not being able to say thank you to everyone who made this night a success including all of the six hundred fans that turned up on the night. I was hoping to be asked to have a word and before I knew it goodnight had been said so I would like this chance to say thanks to everyone it was a great night and only made that way by everyone involved, it’s a great start and we will do our utmost to make sure it keeps going like this.

Thanks again to you all and enjoy,

Eorl.

Back to Blog List