An interesting week in Alberta

To say the least it was an interesting week in Canada's Oil Province as I was there on a combined business and pleasure trip.a wedding, a fiftieth anniversary celebration ,in Calgary and a Sales Management presentation.in Edmonton.It all started off Monday with going to the automated teller in one of the Banks in Calgary's largest mall and after having difficulty with two of the machines and letting my disappointment be known I was called into the Bank Managers office. The Manager glared at me and stated emphatically "Lynch you can tell Austin the honeymoon is over".I was shocked as he had recognized me..Can you believe that ? Nothing was on his mind about my frustration and vented anger over their automated tellers not performing as it turns out he was from Grenfell Sask and a die hard Roughrider fan who after I got to know him and discussed the Rider situation in detail agreed to call him at home on Saturday night after the Rider Eskimo contest at Mosaic Stadium. I did indeed call him after the 54-14 thrashing of the hated Eskimos and he was as happy as I was about the victory

This is just one example of the extent of the Rider nation and it continued at the wedding on Tuesday evening where no less than seven of the 19 invited guests had Saskatchewan routes and wanted to know how things were in Riderville with Eric Tillman and his blog adventures and how was Kent Austin reacting to the media.I gave virtually the same replies every time and must have sounded like a broken record.

Then there was the journey to Edmonton on Wednesday for the Sales Management presentation and if you have ever driven on the highway between Calgary and Edmonton you know what an incredible experience it is as the traffic on it is second only to the 401 from Hamilton to Toronto.I stopped in Red Deer to fill up with gas and would you believe the attendant was originally from Ituna and recognized me and when he lived here had been a Roughrider season ticket holder for 15 years. We had a ten minute review of the Rider season to date before I proceeded on to the Alberta capital.

When I arrived for the presentation I was met by two more ex Saskatoon residents both of whom had been Roughrider season ticket holders for a number of years before moving to Edmonton.so the first part of the presentation after my introduction was to field questions about how Kent Austin would be as a Head Coach.

Then there was the fiftieth Weddding anniversary on Saturday night at the Atco centre in Calgary for the legendary Ken Newans and his wife Mae. There were ninety five invited guests with 47 coming from Saskatchewan with 22of them wearing Green and White apparel of some kind and all of them were in a jovial mood after the events of Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium. Eleven of the more vocal ones came up to the microphone and had their own personal Roughrider story to tell everyone about.

This happens to me whether it be in Calgary, Toronto, Hamilton,,Edmonton, Winnipeg or Vancouver.and to a lesser extent in Ottawa. as that incredible loyalty for this football team is unmatched by any of the other teams in the CFL. You ask yourself what is it that makes this team so unique that once you get hooked on it and become a fan you cannot change even after years of not residing in Saskatchewan ? Nobody appears to have the answer but it certainly is something special.

The big Green machine really answered the bell on Saturday afternoon with another one of those dominating performances like the one they pitched against Calgary on July the Eighth 49-8. Their defence was spectacular again with Kyle Mitchell in his first start in two years at defensive end coming up with a standout performance with blocking a punting attempt and picking up the loose ball himself and returning it for a touchdown , making a key interception and in general creating havoc for the Eskimo offensive line as he appears to be the perfect compliment for Fred Perry at the other end spot. Kerry Joseph also made the big plays passing or running when he had to and his scrambling ability on broken plays was again a big factor in the win.I watched the game with a pair of transplanted Saskatchewanites now living in Calgary who were life lonfg Rider fans,Jack Newman from Saskatoon and Terry Mcphee from Regina. Mcphee is such a radical fan that he stated when the Green Machine was ahead 41-14 that they still had some fine tuning to do.

The Prarie crew were ticked off over what transpired the previous Friday in Edmonton and took out their frustration on the igloo dwellers . As it turns out this result was the second most points scored against the Northern Alberta bunch by Saskatchewan in the history of their rivalry as the Roughriders pounded them 56-8 on August 28 1964 for the most scored. .and it was the fourth highest point production by a Roughrider team in their history.

Now the question is will history repeat itself as after a whopping win over the Stampeders on the Eighth of this month the next opponent for the Green guys was the BC Lions at Mosaic Stadium. and the Rider faithful were expecting a similar performance over the defending Grey Cup champions. We all know what took place as the Leos forgot to read the script and trounced the Green Gladiators 42-12.before 27000 upset Rider Priders.

Now the Riders are on a high again and one again they face the Wally Buono led crew this time on Thursday night at BC Place Stadium. and the Lions are not as healthy as they were on July 13th in Regina with Quarterbacking woes beeing their major concern as it appears the man at the controls for most of this game will be third string Quarterback Jariuos Jackson.Most teams lick their chops at the possibility of facing a third string Quarterback but in this case Jackson has come thru when he has had to which is what seems to happen to signal callers who play for Wally Buono who will in the not to distant future become the winningest Coach in CFL history.