Jump to Main ContentJump to Primary Navigation
leicestertigers.comMattioli Woods Welford RoadContact UsTopps Tiles
News

Love always wins in the end!

Figure image
Stephen Bailey's passion for the Leicester Tigers helped him find love in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

Stephen says the 2011 Premiership Final defeat to Saracens was both a low point and a high point in his life as the pain of the result was balanced by the joy of meeting his now fiancée Diane Ratcliffe, a Sarries fan, at the Twickenham showpiece.
 
Tigers fan Stephen bumped into Diane at half-time of the contest as they queued for a drink in the South Stand at HQ and they met up again after the final whistle had sounded on Saracens’ 22-18 win.
 
“I was naturally disappointed and she was delighted that they had won,” says Stephen. “We went out for dinner the next day and haven’t looked back since."
 
Three years later the couple returned to Twickenham for last season’s Aviva Premiership Grand Final featuring Diane's team Saracens and Northampton. And Stephen seized the moment to propose to Diane next to the bar at which they met.
 
“At full-time we went down stairs to the same bar as before and I proposed to her,” says Stephen, who says they have yet to set a date for their wedding. “It was three years to the event and she was not expecting it at all. I got down on one knee in front of some friends and family and everybody
 
“All from watching a game of rugby! Who would have though it?”