JonM

Be interesting to know whether Brentford would be available for hire - I guess the loss of London Irish means it might be a possibility. Similar size to the grounds we're likely to use up North too.

The mock-up of his mural looks surprisingly good. https://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/2024/04/17/pink-eye-artist-starts-work-on-giant-mural-featuring-warrington-wolves-legend-paul-cullen/

Availability of non-RL venues in October with only a few months notice will be a challenge I would think. Certainly wouldn't expect any Premier League grounds (or indeed Elland Road) to be likely options.

If the plan is to play them along the M62, 2 tests is probably the right approach - playing Tonga in Huddersfield and Leeds last year probably brought in about the same revenue as playing one game in Yorkshire would've done, but incurred an extra week's costs. Only worth going to 3 tests when you have 2 sold out games.

Is it not this post?

15+ posts in and no-one has mentioned the mural of Paul Cullen currently being painted on the side of the Kings Head pub near the HJ Stadium, having finally got planning permission from the council?

I just wonder whether Dr Koukash would've declared bankruptcy that little bit sooner in that case?

2000 in a 19 000 capacity ground is not going to look very good even if the camera was opposite the main stand, I suppose.

If you look at the YT video at the point where the players walk off at the end of the game, it's pretty clear that most of the crowd is indeed in the stand below the camera.

Swinton v Dewsbury 894 Toulouse v Whitehaven 2 055 (lowest crowd for quite some time) Halifax v Sheffield E 1500

Swifts, swallows and house martins all now back here from their winter in Africa. One other set of migratory birds has been back since Feb/March though. The Yorkshire Dales National Park & British Trust for Ornithology have been running a project where they tagged curlews at Bolton Castle in Wensleydale and then have been tracking where they went for the winter. Seems about a third of them went to Ireland, one went to Lincolnshire and the rest left Yorkshire for the winter to catch some rays in the warmer climes of er Lancashire, Cumbria & Cheshire

Can't see an existing thread for this. A couple of games have already been played Vardar Skopje 12 Partizan 62 (in N. Macedonia) Arsenal Tivat 16 Red Star 44 (in Montenegro) Radnički Niš 24 Dorcol Tigers 28 (in Serbia) Partizan 80 Arsenal Tivat 20 (played in Mionica, in Western Serbia) Mad Squirrels Vrchlabi are playing Red Star Belgrade at home this weekend. They'll be bolstered by a few players from Slavia Hradec Králové and Krupka Dragons to try to even up the standard. It will be interesting to see how they get on - they've played Sroki Łódź (Poland) Skane Stags (Sweden) and Exeter Uni in the past couple of years and those have been reasonably matched games.

I'm in BC in June, must try to get along to one of these.

I wonder how much the presence or otherwise of Stade Toulousain in the Top 14 final in Marseille the night before will affect things.

If you meet someone from Lancashire or Cheshire (current versions as opposed to traditional versions) down south they are considerably more likely to say they're from the North West than to say Lancashire. And the rest will say Manchester or Liverpool. Outside of a few pockets that like to build their self-identity on contrast with more successful neighbours (Cornwall, Norfolk, Yorkshire) most people stopped identifying with counties decades ago.