tim2

I did Silksworth parkun in Sunderland last Saturday. A hilly finish and a bit of a gale made it quite tough - it's on an old colliery site where've they've used the tip as a dry ski slope. One of the friendliest parkruns I've been to - free coffee afterwards and I met a couple of runners who I then went for another run with on Sunday. Meanwhile back at my local parkrun, Poolsbrook, the first finisher was the 6th fastest parkrunner in the UK at 15.21 (course record) but would have been 2nd at the Dulwich parkrun mentioned above! Poolsbrook is flat but it's not the easiest of surfaces and has some tricky corners and a narrow gateway so it's a really good time. Over at my home run of Rother Valley, 2 women finished in the country's top 10. Neither beat the women's course record of 17 minutes exactly, set almost 10 years ago.

The episode with the Council re: the planning application was very depressing. Probably better discussed on the Politics sub-forum.

I watched a 50 over match at that ground when I was there. Red hot and no shade. Lots of free sun block available though.

SATURDAY 18th FEBRUARY London Skolars v Workington Town - TOWN BY 10 SUNDAY 19th FEBRUARY Doncaster v Hunslet - DONNY BY 14 Midlands Hurricanes v Cornwall - MIDLANDS BY 10 North Wales Crusaders v Dewsbury Rams - RAMS BY 16

FRIDAY 17th FEBRUARY Sheffield Eagles v Batley Bulldogs - EAGLES by 12 SATURDAY 18th FEBRUARY Toulouse Olympique v York Knights - TOULOUSE BY 14 SUNDAY 19th FEBRUARY Bradford Bulls v Widnes Vikings - WIDNES BY 4 Featherstone Rovers v Whitehaven - FEV BY 40 Halifax Panthers v London Broncos - FAX BY 10 Keighley Cougars v Newcastle Thunder - COUGARS BY 10 Swinton Lions v Barrow Raiders - SWINTON BY 8

Love it - better than the Sky one.

Sheffield will be better this season than last. Their position will to a large extent depend on whether Thackeray stays fit. It's still really wide open below Fev and, probably, Toulouse.

I would really hope that the women's game, starting from scratch, creates a pyramid in which there is no distinction between pro, semi-pro and amateur. There may be minimum standards for certain grades, but that should be it. Caldy is a village on the Wirral. It's a posh village, but it's only got a population of 1200. They have a Rugby Union side who play at a ground that's just about NCL standard with no permanent seated areas. They play in the Championship, one down from the top league. Clearly they have wealthy backers but I don't know if they are fully pro or not. The point is, they have got themselves to that level on the field via the RFU pyramid. I think it's time for a serious discussion about the clubs who can sustain proper professional status and the rest. If that ends up being 20-30, the rest have to be merged into a proper pyramid, regionalised, like RU, fairly quickly down the ranks. They have 1 national league below the championships then regionalise. 12-14 clubs per division. Promotion and relegation must be available at all levels, even if the club cannot (due to minimum standards) or does not want to accept it. I know that this will be almost impossible for historical and financial reasons but I think it's the only way forward as League One will collapse anyway. Some of the clubs in League One are clinging on to the "pro" status because they think it's the only way to survive. And maybe they are right, while the NCL is seen as parochial and not really "National" at all.

What like some sort of broken-time payment? Never, sir, I say never!

Only 38 points out in my prediction

Dublin City Exiles became the first Irish team to win a Challenge Cup game (I think) by beating Hammersmith.

Toulouse by 20 Eagles by 10 Batley by 24 Fev by 20 Broncos by 10 Widnes by 14

I've got about 50 within that drive time.

It's either a "bit of banter" (in which case so was mine) or you should be compaining to the club rather than me. Obviously not everyone is the same but that's the club's official account, and that's the "they" I meant, not the fans. Perhaps someone there needs to grow up.

Then they wonder why no-one likes them.

I'm back at parkrun after another bout fo lurgy and suffering another painful achilles reaction. This time I got some actual physiotherapy and it held up well on Saturday, albeit a bit slow due to being too fat as well as out of practice. The rehab execrsises are chuffing hard work. I hope it's worth it!

Barrow Raiders v Toulouse Olympique by 6 Bradford Bulls v Whitehaven by 16 Halifax Panthers v Sheffield Eagles by 12 London Broncos v Batley Bulldogs by 12 Swinton Lions v Newcastle Thunder by 4 York Knights v Widnes Vikings by 6 At least 4 of these could go either way. Fev to beat Keighley but it will probably not be a done deal until after 60 minutes.

My grandson lives in Harworth and is currently with the U5s at Doncaster Knights. I'll keep tabs on your progress so we can perhaps get him playing the better code at U7.

Unless it's Super League and they can't see the M62 from their ground.

on the opening day. On a Sunday, kicking off at 3pm. In Bradford.

"World Record" Having mocked that, good luck to Bradford for this initiative. Much though we mayhate to say it, a strong Bradford club matters to the sport.

Sheffield were massively underestimated last year, and I think 10th for them this year is wrong too.

I assume the RU pro game can't change until the IRB decides, otherwise international tournaments and matches would be impossible.

Only by implication.

Brian Noble calling for a radical revamp of pro rugby league led to a predictable and sad facebook thread. The usual garbage trotted out - back to winter, scrapping the play-offs and Grand Final, proper scrums (and proper tackles, whatever that means), 14 teams in SL, 2 up 2 down, Yorkshire Cup, Lancashire Cup, and my personal favourite the return of the Roses matches (*). "It'll be just like Origin" No wait, my favourite was to go back to being amateur with "a few professionals in each team". This is one of the many things IMG are up against. They must wonder what they've taken on. (*) there were some sarcastic ones, but it was a thin line between those and the serious ones.