Honor James

Indeed! ........ in Blackpool, in Summer! .......... and then in Brighton, in Scarborough, in Morecambe, in Torquay, Aberystwyd, Clacton on Sea and great Yarmouth, in Bristol and Hartlepool and Barrow in Furness. That would be an interesting way to keep died-in-the-wool fans still wanting to attend it each year and offering a taste of this fantastic game to holiday crowds all over the county. But a test match in Oldham? With the greatest respect to Oldham (and as the Bury born daughter, bred of Langanstrian parents (and heritage since time immemorial), I have exactly that ....... the very greatest respect for Oldham, and Rochdale, Bolton, Heywood, Prestwich and Worthington ........ Their hard-working, decent people; their down to earth, common sense attitude, and their abilty to go on laughing in the face of a life that, till recent years, knew more than its fair share of adversity, ranks them in the top row of my admired peoples. But as I said, with the greatest respect to Oldham - if a Rugby League test match staged there on a Tuesday night is the true aspiration and test of their game's success for a majority of Rugby League fans, then sadly I have to believe that Rugby League is destined to remain no more than a brave little Northern offshoot of `the real rugby' as it is currently thought to be, rather than a game the whole country, and the rest of the world, takes note of and begins to understand, admires, talks about, metions regularly on The News and writes about in newspapers. With the greatest respect to Dave T: We can have it `Our Game', arranged to suit `Us'. Or we can have it widely known, loved, admired, respected and watched by millions, at times and in places chosen to suit the millions - whose money is what might really help to keep it (this game so many fans love, for itself, not just for what they want of it) thriving and growing for all of us, at every level. But I don't believe that we can have both ways. :-)

With respect - because my association with the game goes back only eight years so I cannot be considered any kind of expert - I agree entirely with everything said by RP London (above). However, in my eight years of involvement with the game I have been privileged to see it through a wide-angle lens , by virtue of working for the publishers of three very special, rugby league dedicated publications (League Express, Rugby League World and Totalrl.com). And there is no doubt in my mind that in that time, the game has seen giant leaps forward. Massive strides in development from the bottom up, bringing the game for the first time into the lives of thousands of children and young people who had never even heard of it, who, now they have heard of it and played it love it, and are encouraging their friends to come along and love it too. In administration procedures also the advances are legion. In fact every way you look you will find advances ........... And yes, along the way some wrong turns may have been taken and an occasional U turn have turned out to be necessary but surely, it is only for the convenience of political reporting media that changing one's mind is now interpreted as weakness, wrongness or stupidity. Where I come from, changing one's mind and direction if an outcome, or another suggestion, proves one's original decision was wrong, is a sign of excellently perfect common sense. Whether, on the other hand, the timing of these announced increases was particularly appropriate is a question worthy of consideration by the RFL board of directors, with a view to avoiding controversy in future. When many of one