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Pigeon Lofter

Coach
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Everything posted by Pigeon Lofter

  1. Probably add another 10,000, perhaps more, to the gate and enhance the international credentials of the weekend by including the competition between the two hemispheres' top club sides? Something more at stake rather than just a couple of league games. Why would SL need to financially support it? They would be guests, not hosts.
  2. Absolutely. He's the heir apparent and has the Fox and News Corp power at his fingertips. Also, a long-time believer in RL (or should that be Australian RL?).
  3. Very positive reporting on the main Foxnews homepage : https://www.foxnews.com/sports/rugby-star-takes-page-out-rob-gronkowskis-book-try-nrl-dazzles-las-vegas
  4. Yes, it ticked all the boxes. For sure, the NRL will be more than happy with that.
  5. Lots of the less salubrious hotels did really cheap buffets, but the Boardwalk was in a league of it's own as far as low prices were concerned. Another was Sahara, and also Bourbon Street too. These three made Circus Circus look positively upmarket (which it certainly wasn't). The Bellagio was the bees knees back in the day, but newer hotels have probably got the most lavish buffets these days, Wynn and Encore being examples of such when I last visited about 13 years ago.
  6. I'd have a stab at Castleford, Salford, Huddersfield and maybe Wakefield until their relegation being anti-Dragon, but that's just guesswork. None of them are shining examples of how elite sport in the UK should be run.
  7. Thanks for that. On the RFL website though, "knock on means to knock the ball towards the opponent's dead ball line with hand or arm." If it's not towards the opposition goal line, then it's not a knock-on by the RFL's own definition.
  8. Only just tuned into the Swinton-Oldham game on The Sportsman, but there was a couple of knock-ons called by the referee in the last five minutes even though the ball, although mishandled, always went backwards toward the players own goal line and was not advanced towards the opponent's try line. Is there a nuance that a dropped or mishandled pass is given as a knock-on when there is no forward motion of the ball? RU seems to have sorted this out, a dropped ball which goes backwards is not called as a knock-on, whereas in RL a dropped pass seems to be a knock-on regardless.
  9. HKR over-celebrating dropped passes by the opposition, not a great look...
  10. Do they have any options, other than to stay put? Their dream of buying the AJ Bell is over, just as SRD's nightmare of being evicted is too. Certainly a win for RL last night. RU, not so much.
  11. Is there any reports on which of the French teams are showing interest? The 3 richest RU clubs in the world are all French. Racing 92 owned by Swiss billionaire Jacky Lorenzetti (worth 4 billion Euros), Stadt Francais owned by German billionaire Hans-Peter Wild (worth 3 billion Euros), and Montpellier owned by Syrian billionaire Mohed Altrad (worth 1.7 billion Euros). Stadt Francais and Racing 92 are flying high but Montpellier are in bottom place (14th in the Top 14) and might even be relegated (although yo-yo club Perpignan aren't doing that much better).
  12. Thanks. I started going to Watersheddings when I was 12 or 13, unattended. There was a child admission charge back then, but the turnstile operator used to ask me to climb over and pocketed the money himself. That was normal behaviour back in the day. What happens to school kids whose parents or adult friends aren't interested in going, do they have to pay a full price or perhaps then they should just latch onto any adult heading in and therefore get in for free, before separating inside the stadium? Is Boundary Park an all-seater ground now? I haven't been there since 1977.
  13. How is the free entry for school kids (under 16s) working out? Do they have to be accompanied by a paying adult?
  14. There are four copies listed on Abebooks.co.uk (which is also owned by Amazon). One hardback, three paperbacks. One each in the UK, USA, NZ and Oz. The NZ and UK ones are around £40 each (the NZ one around £20 but also £20 shipping cost), the Australia one is £36 plus £30 for shipping, and the USA one £48 for the book, and another £40 for shipping. The hardcover book is "used" whereas the 3 paperbacks are described as "new". ISBN 10: 1991033443 ISBN 13: 9781991033444
  15. Hopefully, the BBC will get rid of their overused animated 'giants' sequence that has introduced the sport in their productions for the last few years. The best opening sequence IMO is the NFL intro to their Sunday night games, with a knockout song and spellbinding graphics. If only...
  16. Oh, and Bob Irving in the second row. A regular in the Great Britain pack. We had some good 'uns back then. Even the coach, Jim Challinor, had coached Great Britain.
  17. Mike Elliot was a natural, a true speedster and a very reliable pair of hands, and always made the line-up. He was known as "Flash" back in the day (for his superb acceleration, not for anything else ). He always looked much older than he actually was. A real gentleman on and off the pitch. A winger who came from Union in the Welsh valleys. Tug Wilson and Kevin Taylor were in the front row, again seeming playing every game, year in and year out. Some props came and went (Terry Clawson, Billy McCracken, Barry Kear, Frank Foster etc) but these two were stalwarts in the Oldham pack. Tug had boxed for England, but never threw a punch in anger on the pitch. Kevin, a local plumber, was the hooker when hooking was a dangerous occupation, and was well respected by everyone. Both local heroes. You are right to have mentioned these guys Bert, they were very much a part of ORLFC in the 1970s! Phil Larder was of course another legend. He became Oldham's goal kicker, and then Frank Foster used to kick for touch. This always surprised me, it should have been the other way round. When Phil Larder started kicking the goals, he lined the ball up like a torpedo and toe-poked it towards it's target. Soon after, he adopted the round-the-corner style that had become popularised by David Watkins at Salford. Pretty soon, everyone's copying Watkins and the old style went out of the window. Phil taught PE at a local school, I remember one time he refereed my school in a soccer match, he was a man of the people. He went on to coach England RU and was significantly involved in their World Cup win in 2003 in Australia.
  18. Frank Foster was an absolute legend of the game, fearless, and fully respected by all (players, opponents, fans, referees, journalists). I will always remember when he scored a long-distance field goal from 40 metres out against Great Britain at Watersheddings in the 70s. A mercurial character if ever there was one. Did we win that game, or was it a draw? Johnny Blair was another player I admired, probably the best kicker I ever saw in an Oldham shirt (I am too young to have seen Ganley play). Why JB only got occasional games was a mystery to me. I think he played stand-off or fullback, and Martin Murphy and Cliff Hill were the first choice options. Again, my best memory of him was a phenomenal drop goal from the halfway line at Knowsley Road when Oldham beat the Saints 8-7 in the 70s. I didn't go down too well with the locals, and they bricked our coach on the way home. Another fans favourite was Norman Hodgkinson, a winger who impressed tremendously in his first season only to lose all confidence the following term, when he couldn't even catch the ball. From hero to zero, it was tragic to see his downfall and he was never heard from again. Mick McCone at scrum half. A tiny, thin bloke who had the heart of a lion. When scrums were dangerous places to be. There was some great players at Oldham in the 1970s.
  19. Looking good, Sky and the BBC supporting RL like never before! I assume Sky are still showing NRL, and will continue to show SL highlights from years gone by. Pity CH4 are no longer involved, a third broadcaster would be the icing on the cake but there's clearly nothing left for them to cover.
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