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Just under 13000 for Notts County v Solihull Moors .

The extra year for our young NRL centres along with the young SL guys like Newman and Welsby could prove in terms of the team on the pitch to be our greatest benefit from the years delay to the World Cup. Young has stated his allegiance to Jamaica but that was more at a time when he would have been a squad depth or left at home guy, if he forces his way to the front of the queue for a team with realistic chances to win the competition he would likely take it.

Didn't think I'd find any football to enjoy this weekend, but I was wrong, it's all a question of finding International games with something riding on them. Bosnia vs Finland was very enjoyable, now watching Norway vs Latvia, a vital game. Wales play a crucial game tonight, and tomorrow two winner takes all matches in Russia vs Croatia and Spain vs Sweden.

Few people reel off anecdotes as effortlessly as Peter O'Toole.

If I put that on our telly the wife would chop my goolies off ….. again. She has a pathological hatred of Bruce Willis and his dirty vest. At the pub last Tuesday she was telling a friend how she can’t stand Willis and Stallone because they both wear dirty vests on screen

Farnworth and Young have the size and strength that we have been looking for at centre for years. Indeed ever since Australia and the NRL really pushed on with the calibre of athletes that they have playing the game we have never really caught up. Gleeson and Senior are perhaps the only two real quality centres we have had since the early 90s. While the likes of Gildart and Percival may be decent SL centres they just don't have the size and strength to deal with the other top nations outside backs. Both don't fill me with confidence defensively and have flaws. The other nations have backs with not just the skill and speed but also brute size and strength and England have to be able to match that. Its certainly exciting times for the England team and its great to have so many options out wide. That was practically unthinkable for much of the last 20 years.

Two very good athletes with big futures. While Farnworth played most of 2021 in the centre and Young on the wing, for England they could be more effective the other way around. Farnworth's carries bringing the ball away from the line are very good, he has size and footwork which means he typically gets a quick play the ball. Add the speed and he is a good winger but less of a classic centre. Young on the other hand could be a very good right centre. For a big man he has subtle hands and has shown a talent for getting his winger away. Looking forward to seeing how they both develop next year.

Amazing statistic for Dominic Young who is by no means a lightweight. Farnworth and Young might just be a feared England pairing for the years ahead. Big year, maybe even breakthrough, for both of them coming up.

To describe an area like the New Forest as one of natural beauty is, at best, misleading. The distinctive nature of the forest is, to a significant degree, down to how man has interacted with the landscape. (as an aside, I would probably make this point about many national parks and so called areas of outstanding natural beauty) The calendar of human activity in the New Forest helps to mark the passage of the year for the casual observer. Autumn means at least two things in this context. First, it is the pannage season. 'Pannage' is one of the common law rights of the forest which those commoners, allowed by virtue of the property in which they live to exercise it, can do so, if they wish. It is the right to turn out to roam (the technical, New Forest term is 'depasture') pigs in the autumn. The start and finish dates for pannage are set each year and in 2021 they are from 13th September to 14th November. The reason why pigs are depastured is to eat the acorn crop. The pigs love them and thrive on them; by contrast, if eaten to excess, acorns can kill ponies. This year, the acorn crop appears to have been abysmal and I have only seen one group of pigs roaming free in the forest; they were at Eyeworth. The other activity is rounding up the ponies which, contrary to popular belief, are not wild, but owned by commoners. The New Forest term for a round-up is a 'drift', though temporary road signs warn motorists of a 'pony round-up in progress'. I have chanced on one in action a few times over the years; it is spectacular to see, as the more able horsemen among the commoners ride on horseback to corale the ponies to the predetermined collection point. This is not a full proof process, as some don't get rounded up. At the collection point, the agisters will be present; these are the forest officials responsible for the health and welfare of animals. They will check which mares have foals with them and add the latter to the register. The ponies' health will be checked and remedial action, if needed, will be taken (e.g. hoof trimming). The ponies used to be branded, and possibly still are. Perhaps most intriguingly, their tails will be trimmed at the bottom and on the sides, to a distinctive, coded stepped pattern which indicates to which part of the forest they belong. Soon, there will be pony sales, for instance adjacent to Beaulieu Road Station, and for some ponies it will be the end of their time in the forest. I knew there was a drift taking place the other week in the part of the forest nearest where I live as the car park I use almost daily as the start of the daily dog walk for Mrs WWD was, according to a sign, closed for a day to enable 'livestock management'. Oh dear, management-speak comes to the Forestry Commission; what's wrong with 'drift' or, if that seems too obscure, 'pony round-up'?