thirteenthman

1979 was probably the last Boxing Day league match shown on BBC1 (Leeds v Hunslet). 1980 saw a new deal signed with the BBC which was no longer exclusive, so any matches the BBC didn't show could be offered to ITV. This also saw the end of the Floodlit Trophy.

December 1993 0-0

According to the Rothmans Yearbook, it was 13/10/1990 Hull 3 Warrington 2, Greg Mackey got the DG. And as mentioned previously, a week later Warrington also lost to Oldham by 4 points to 2. Same season, Warrington also beat Ryedale York in the 1st round of the CC by 8 points to 1.

Not my collection sadly - there's a guy on Twitter who posts listings from old TV and Radio Times every day.

Trans World Sport was voiced by a guy called Bruce Hammal who used to do the voiceovers for Sky Sports many years ago. There was a similar type show that was only 30 minutes long which Kid Jensen used to do - something like Gillette World Sport or something similar. I think ITV used to show it in the middle of the night possibly?

C4 showed an hour of highlights of the Aussie GF in 1983, some 8 days after the game had been played. 8pm on a Monday evening. According to the Tv Times it was the first time the game had been seen on Tv in this country.

Yeah, a great night that. In 1997 they had their record attendance at that ground for the SL Grand Final against Cronulla when there were over 58,000 in. 2 weeks later when they played St Helens in the WCC there were just over 6000 in.

Brisbane played at QE2 Stadium between 1993 and 2003, which is/was an athletics stadium. It was known as ANZ Stadium when the Broncos played there. The 1994 WCC game against Wigan and the 1997 WCC matches were all played at that ground.

According to the Rothmans Yearbook for 95/96, Ryedale-York (as they were at the time) conceived a 'Super League plan' with Gateshead Council on 12/4/95. It also says the intention was to move to Gateshead. No more detail is given. However, it was a Carlisle home match that was played in Gateshead (23/4/95) against York (their last game as Ryedale York). Of course, after the second version of the league line up was announced on April 30th, which confimed York as being in Division 2, it was stated that Newcastle Utd had enquired about entering a team in SL, so I suspect it may have been a fairly short lived plan.

So Gidley's signed for Warrington. I'm not sure which is more surprising, the fact Warrington have signed him or that they fought off other clubs for his signature. Always thought he was massively overrated, but obviously more knowledgable people than myself think otherwise. I'm somewhat surprised Catalans were after him though. Presumably he would've taken Morgan Escare's place at fullback? Bizarre!!! Only just seen this, but it can't be true. The rumour round Warrington for the past year has been that he'll be coming here to 'finish his career'. Even the news of Gidley signing a 1 year deal has convinced some people that it's because Cronk's coming in 2017!!!

No mention of it - in fact in all the stuff I've read about the restructure I've only read vague references to maybe running C1 on a regional basis, but nothiing definite. Yet, the plan was supposed to be to bring Coventry in next year. If they do that, they'll still only be 14 teams in C1 - hardly enough to split it into regional set ups. When you think that 4 clubs have only just be promoted to make the Championship 14 teams strong to give them more games, and now it's being cut down again to 12, with 4 clubs having to be demoted to C1, it must make life very difficult for clubs in that position to plan long term.

The article I quoted from listed it all under 'central funding', but you're right, funding based on finishing positions is basically prize money, and I really don't know how anyone could plan based on possibly ending up getting 5 times less money than you hope for. What it also does is reinforce and probably widen the gap between the top and bottom clubs in the Championship. And there is also no mention of salary caps. It's worth pointing out that the article does quote Nigel Wood as saying "Our task now is to drill down into the details of a range of issues such as minimum standards, financial distributions and the various mechanics around promotion and relegation". Which suggests that the only thing definite is that SL will have 12 teams in 2015, and yet they're apparently going to make a final decision on it all next month.

According to today's League Weekly (make of that what you will) the redistribution of monies will be as follows:- Option 1 - 2X12 format 2up 2 down - SL clubs £1.3m pa Championship: Top 2 £500k 3rd and 4th place £200k Other clubs £175k - £150k dependant on finishing position Option 2 - 2x12 3x8 format - SL clubs £1.3m pa Championship: Top £650k, 2nd £600k, 3rd £550k, 4th £500k Other clubs £200k to £150k Option 1 could go to 27 or 29 weekly rounds in SL, and will have a 6 team play off. Bottom team automatically relegated replaced by Championship top team, SL 11th place team joins Championship play offs.

Interesting article in this months 40 20 magazine regarding the recent Supporters Direct meeting which Blake Solly from the RFL attended. There's a list of the main points Blake raised at the meeting, but here's a couple that stand out - SL losses in 2012 were £600k - £8m as a consolidated entity - despite a rise in TV money. The Championship clubs were each losing £60k pa in 2008, this was cut to £10k in 2012. Although clubs admit licencing is better than what went before, the administrative burden outweighs benefits, diverting resources away from commercial imperatives. It protects underperforming clubs. Sky would prefer more jeopardy and variety. P+R would be decided by one automatic spot and one spot decided by a play off, irrespective of the structure adopted.

Got my copy last week, and today my wife kindly called in at the Wires club shop on the way home from work where Andy Gregory was signing copies. She managed to get both Andy Gregory and Adrian Morley to sign it. Just need to find a bit of time to read it now.