The Phantom Horseman

Looks like it has now (kind of). https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/london-broncos-warned-over-promotion-1924945

Fine, in all honesty there are hundreds of things that deserve mockery more so perhaps that's the wrong phrase. I just want to see amusing or original social media posts from sports clubs, not lame rehashed ones where it appears they've tried to copy someone else's joke without getting it.

Well, you're right, if you want clicks and engagements, and teams are positively rewarded for that under the grading criteria (assuming it hasn't been quietly binned now). I was thinking in terms of not making posts that merit widespread mockery, but I guess widespread mockery isn't a bad thing.

How not to do social media: 1. Basketball legend Lebron James is set to leave the LA Lakers and strongly linked with a move to the Golden State Warriors, creating lots of "Lebron to join Warriors" headlines. 2. New Zealand Warriors put up a social media post saying "the rumour is true", with Lebron photo-shopped into a (NZ) Warriors jersey. 3. The London Broncos SM team sees this gets lots of likes so for some reason think this gag will work for them too

2 minutes after I post this, Brook holes out for 21 off 10 balls.

Watching Stokes' innings, and then Harry Brook pulling his first ball for six and then ramping his second ball for four, I'm reminded of Pierre Bosquet's verdict on the Charge Of The Light Brigade: "C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie."

How it started...January 2020 Grace Pritchard, a young journalism student, does a series of game previews for the Featherstone Rovers website How it's going...Grace Pritchard is now Andy Burnham's Head Of Communications and set for a massive role at the heart of government. Hope she can put in a good word for us!

It really wasn't. It was shoehorned in on the end of a discussion about the fixtures , with your own take on whether Fev will return and a strange demand that "the fans need to demonstrate there's a demand for the club", which suggests you haven't been paying attention to what the fans have been doing recently. Fev's return or otherwise isn't dependent on the fans, it will be down to the wishes of whoever ends up controlling the land, and of course the RFL if an application to rejoin is made. My thoughts on the fixture list are nothing to do with my own team (which doesn't exist!) and they won't change if we return next year.

I wasn't "taking offence when the obvious was pointed out to me", it was just a complete non-sequitur at the end of a discussion about something else. I don't know any Fev fans who need the club's financial failings and recklessness pointing out to them, indeed I was hinting at it on this forum three years ago (though obviously I had no idea of the extent of it).

You can spin it as much as you like, but any league that has clubs playing some teams twice and others not at all is hugely flawed when there's a big disparity between the strongest teams and the weakest teams, that's my view and I know it's the view of quite a number of other Championship fans. As for your last 3 sentences...I'm not sure how you've got there from the topic we were discussing, other than that you know I'm a Featherstone fan and you were determined to slide something in about our currently non-existent club.

Yes we did, and for almost all of that period we had one division. Shall we go back to that too, and have (for instance) NW Crusaders, Workington, Goole and Swinton playing against Leeds, Wigan, St Helens and Hull KR? Just because we used to do something doesn't mean it's right for the modern game. Unlimited tackle count, kicking out at the play-the-ball, no substitutes etc etc. Ok, strictly speaking that's correct, I was using it as shorthand for "a system that doesn't involve each club playing each other home and away". If 2 teams playing each other 3 times is unsatisfactory, I would suggest that teams some teams twice and others not at all is even more unsatisfactory.

Well, we abandoned the planned phased Championship move from 14 to 13 to what would have been 12 - after just one year. And part of the reason we moved to 14 SL clubs was supposedly the desire to bring an end to loop fixtures - which we then imposed on the Championship with steroids.

I think generally the women's game doesn't attract big crowds other than for big games involving the top 2 or 3 teams, and as Fevrover says, Fev fans would have been much more likely to go and watch the likes of Josh Hardcastle & Johnny Davies playing for Lions less than half a mile away.

Well, there's an element of luck of the draw in terms of when teams play each other ie you might play a team that's out of form, or struggling big-time with injuries, suspensions etc. Having a competition where teams play some teams twice and other teams not at all isn't luck of the draw, though, it's an unbalanced comp by design.

Indeed, and both teams had the opportunity to rack up the points, because in that season each team had to play each other home and away. Contrast that with the ridiculous fixture set-up this year, where, for example, play-off contenders such as London, Widnes and Newcastle all get to play NW Crusaders twice, whilst fellow play-off contenders such as Barrow and Oldham don't get to play them at all. It's farcical.