Reverend Ram

Interestingly the history of the club by Scargill/Fox/Crabtree mentions 27 players who enlisted in 1914/5 season but only one is mentioned by name, Lance Todd (yea the very same who the CC man of the match is named after)- signed for us in 1914 from Wigan for £400. I can’t be sure but Vic Hey May have also served in WW2? Again, if we count Eddie Waring’s wartime wheeler dealering you can count Roy Francis and Gus Risman as well as serving DRLFC staff. I am not sure about serving players who paid the ultimate sacrifice but the time is ripe for such research I think.

Belated congratulations to you but a question - remembering how it was a bit of a pain getting to the Huntingdon Stadium as an away fan do you think crowds will hold up when you move out to the edge of the city again from Bootham?

From memory not a spectacular player but an honest toiler and very reliable. R.I.P

For someone with my persuasion Faith is the keystone - and it is almost with childlike satisfaction that I have today proudly purchased my new ST for next year as a manifestation of that faith in Mr Greenwood and what he may deliver to the worshippers at the altar of Tetley Stadium. I tut tut at smokers and their addiction but I have had this one for nigh on 47 years! Roll on the 48th!

Thanks to you all - let’s see what the night brings and as a neutral and Yorkie to boot I have no preference so long as It is a good game.

I am in Brussels tomorrow night - to save me wandering from bar to bar I don’t suppose anyone knows if there is likely to be anywhere showing the GF? I recall around 20 years ago a bloke from Widnes ran an establishment in Anderlecht somewhere but it may have been the Trappist beer clouding my judgement...

Three days on and the dust is settling - but I will say well played all season and although you just pulled up short it was no doubt a thrilling ride - but having tasted disappointment you can consider yourselves genuine RL fans now! I am also impressed with the equanimity and mangnaminty of the WP fans response to the defeat - not sure some of our more rabid ones this side of the Atlantic would have the dignity to take defeat on the same way. And it means the dog collar can make an appearance at Lamport next season!

What’s Peter Fox doing nowadays?

A bit of a hollow victory really given the circumstances though we did show a clinical element in finishing as you can only beat what is in front of you; some good tries to savour and to nurse as a memory over the close season. The team looked happy enough but how many will be left next year? All credit to Leigh and their supporters for going the full 80 though the shortage of players for a team that until fairly recently had a reserve side is extremely worrying.

Sadly Brother your premonition was correct though you should be proud of the 13 you had as they gave their all (Bailey lasting 80 minutes alone was brave enough) so they were rightly applauded by both the rams fans and your own supporters, who showed true character. Despite the score line I would be proud of my team if the situation was reversed and we showed the same spirit in trying circumstances.

But to get back to the thread, we will finish on an unexpected high - 1 point victory for us!

Old fashioned perhaps but to me worth a punt - Karl Harrison!

Rich material here for next week’s sermon, thanks! However I’n not going to preach here save to say we are all hypocrites of course - we all chelp loudly that the likes of Amazon and Starbucks should do the moral thing and pay more in taxes yet do our own dubious tax returns and cheer to the rafters the try awarded from the blatant forward pass that everyone in the crowd except the ref and TJ sees. Thankfully there still is a sense of right from wrong, whatever clog dance may say, and even godless Tbone recognises as such (they even know it in Batley or so I’m told) so there is still hope. Of course the “get away with it” mentality it will still continue on the field as a fundamental part of the flawed human being (especially where £ is concerned) but we can take comfort from the checks and balances that help keep anarchy at bay even if they have to be dressed up as VR, retrospective match analysis and historic branding as a cheat. (note I do not think MCB deliberately cheated here but genuinely thought he had scored). Much as I would like I am realistic to know we won’t see Thomas Moore’s Utopia on Earth because man’s basic greed will prevail though I am sure had he known about it they would be playing TGG there!

Listened to the game on Radio Leeds - to misquote Oscar Wilde to drop the ball after one restart is misfortune; after the second time is carelessness- but four times? Heavens above!

Remember also the times themselves as the twilight of the Victorian era saw much change socially in any event (doesn’t every era!) - anarchist was a term with a different connotation then -well, maybe not as Russia was a bogeyman then too) but I like to think the introduction of the NU contributed to the breakdown of the class system accelerated subsequently by things like the Titanic and most bitterly the carnage of WW1. Mind, the pews were a bit fuller then...