tim2

Scottish football splits for the last part of the season but that's also weird, as the final table can have 7th place with more points than 6th place. Sadly no other sport compares to English football in its ability to have a huge P&R based league structure all the way to tier 10 (or whatever it is) and still have teams like Bournemouth competing near the top with an 11,000 seat stadium. They still have issues further down, and stadium and other requirements related to promotion.

If you want an example of a genuinely bad idea, the 3 division structure with an 8 team second division was probably the one.

It's not OK in Rugby League! Anything but P&R with 4 up and 4 down with local lads playing in winter isn't going to cut it!

When it was "one big league" back in the 70s and in other periods of the game, nobody played everybody twice. In 1973, before they split, 30 teams played 34 matches each with the top 16 going into the play-offs. Dewsbury (with Stevo) won the title from 8th place. 21 teams, 24/26 matches and 8 in the playoffs seems reasonable. The best teams will rise to the top. To win the title, Dewsbury beat the top 3 teams from the league phase. The top 16 also made up the new 1st division, with Wigan pipping York to the final place on points difference.

Menzie Yere has turned out for Hillsborough Hawks.

Not properly thought through, you say? All the previous systems must have been properly thought through, because we haven't had loads of different systems, including the current one.... oh.

Stuart Broad's biography is interesting. When he didn't make the Leicestershire development squad at 15 he decided to play sport (rugby, hockey and others as well as cricket) with his mates. His mum didn't usually watch (his parents were separated and his dad - Chris Broad, ex-England player - lived about 100 miles away so was usually not involved due to playing at weekends) and told him just to enjoy it. He did, and at 16/17 he rocketed up in height and became an international cricketer. He said that the lack of pressure and the enjoyment of playing with his mates served him very well in his career. I officiate in tennis and the parents can be problematic (nowhere near what I saw in rugby league or is reported in football) but when it goes over the line the LTA are pretty hard on them. They have dished out significant bans for parents - several months is common and, for bad cases or repeat offenders, permanent bans.

Good win for the Eagles that they need to build on. A couple of wins will take the sting out of the upcoming Fans' Forum.

Nottingham Outlaws have their own ground.

Great news - it's taken more than 10 years to recover from the situation where the RFL basically dropped expansion at junior level virtually overnight, making it hard for vounteers to take up all the slack. There were junior leagues at 3 age groups and festivals for primary age that attracted dozens of players to all four corners of the region. Multiple (semi) professional players emerged from that era. Such a shame that it's had to rebuild almost from scratch. Nice to see a team from the North of Derbyshire in there, along with the Bulldogs. My grandson plays for the Bulldogs as well as Rugby Union at Donny. In addition, one of my former Open Age teams (Forgers) has moved to Chesterfield (another place I tried to get RL going in)

Looking at the team sheet there's no way the Eagles should be struggling. The injuries and "new coach adjustment" are probably the reasons so far. Let's hope we kick on from here.

I support Sheffield and didn't see that scoreline coming. I couldn' go, but reports from Sheffield fans suggest Batley were poor.

I don't always agree with you, but you're right on this one.

I reckon The Watersheddings was really somewhere near the North Pole.

Do yourself a favour and never invest in London RL yourself I'm sure that's how the poem ended.