RichardJ

Nottingham beat Queensbury in the group games but for some reason the RFL gave the 2 group points to Queensbury. The table has been amended and Nottingham finished on 5 points, Queensbury on 4.

Im a little out of the loop on this one, others at the club can probably answer this question better than I can. I think our position is that we are watching developments re the new Southern Conference but the planning is still at an early stage of development so impossible to say whether we would want to be included (thats my personal take on things)

I have been following the above discussions with interest and just wanted to give you a brief update on where Nottingham Outlaws are at with respect to our plans for next season. As many of you know, we did indeed make a formal application to join the NCL for next season, but unfortunately our application has now been formally rejected. There were 3 places up for grabs and six applicants were put forwards to the management committee. Whilst we were considered to be a very serious candidate we were let down by our lack of junior sides playing in an organised league structure. Clearly with us being situated outside of the heartlands it is always going to be a difficult task for us to get junior sides playing in a Yorkshire based competition. In the mean time we will continue our membership of the Yorkshire Premier League whilst complementing our schedule with additional fixtures. We will also keep a close eye on other options, such as a proposed new Southern Conference that is currently being evaluated by the RFL.

Does anyone know of any on-line streams for this weekends (and next weekends) test matches? Im stuck abroad and would like to watch if possible?

After 30+ years of nomadic existence, Nottingham Outlaws finally acquired their own ground and clubhouse!

The loss of the Bramley game was desperately disappointing news and a body blow to all those who worked so hard on preparing for the fixture. Especially the case for Joe Shepherd who was at the ground until 2.00am every day this week watering the pitch! Despite this, we have decided to open the doors at Lenton Lane on Saturday from 12.00pm and would like to invite all our supporters and any other RL fans in the area down for the afternoon. The bar will be open for beers and soft drinks and we will be serving sandwiches, pies etc from the kitchen. At around 2.00pm we will put on some games of touch so all the supporters and players can have a few friendly games followed by some NRL action on the big screen. All focus now turns to our Top 4 clash on Friday 3rd August against Bentley for the first ever floodlit game at our new home.

Not sure if anyone here was planning on attending, but please be aware that the game has now been CANCELLED due to coach/transport problems on behalf of the Artillery who cannot now make the journey.

If any forum readers are around the East Midlands this weekend then why not pop down to the Outlaws new home at Lenton Lane, Nottingham (NG7 2SA) on Friday evening (22nd June) for the Heroes Trophy match (kick off 7.30pm) The Heroes Trophy is the annual match between Nottingham Outlaws and The Royal Artillery Gunners. First taking place in 2010 as a charity match for Help for Heroes, the clash has now become a permanent fixture in the Outlaws calendar, due in no small part to the highly competitive nature of the games and the miniscule points difference separating the teams. The match also helps to raise money for the Royal Artillery Charitable Fund, and from 2017 became the Daniel Priest Memorial Match. To date the challenge stands at 4 wins each, but only 1 team can take home the magnificent, solid silver trophy on Friday evening so come down the lane, drink some real ales in the Third Man Inn and watch some quality RL action.

Slowly recovering from yesterdays hectic, inaugural match atLenton Lane. I was a bit worried with the poor weather forecast for the day (it never stopped raining) but in the end it turned out to be a great occasion! Around 300 people in attendance despite the poor weather, great to see both stands packed and the pitch and surrounds looked fantastic, it really is a superb playing surface (probably helped by all the rain!) The match itself was a hard fought battle against a well drilled East Hull outfit, their defence was just too good and despite having periods of dominance and great field position we couldn't get across the whitewash for that elusive first try in our home ground as we ended up on the wrong end of a 26-0 scoreline. Most of the committee didn't care too much about the result, we lost out to a great team but in the bigger picture the the day was a resounding success! Afterwards the club house was packed until closing, we drank the bar dry and took more money in one game than we did in the whole of last season combined!

Everything set for the big day on Saturday. Posts are up and there are a full series of events starting with gates open late morning. Read all about it here http://www.nottinghamrl.co.uk/2018/04/25/outlaws-ready-for-historic-fixture/ 11.00am: gates open 11.15am: Outlaws bar “The Third Man Inn” opens for business 11.30am: touch rugby starts (open to all, finishes 12.30pm) 12.00pm: Afternoon tea and cakes served in the club house 12.30pm: Opening of cask ales provided by Lenton Lane Brewery 1.00pm: launch of 2018 range of Outlaws merchandise 2.00pm: Entrance of Little John Beer Barrow 2.30pm: Nottingham Outlaws v East Hull 4.30pm: Man of the match awards 5.00pm: Food available for supporters 6.00pm: Happy Hour 6.30pm: Bubbly served (toast the new club house) 7.00pm: Whisky galore 7.30pm: Bingo 8.00pm til late: Drinks and carriages

Fully age TD. One of our main goals will be to get as much activity on the site as possible, we will move our juniors onto the site shortly and will have the women playing there too. We are also hoping the ground will be used on occasions by both universities which are only a mile or so from the ground. The story behind the demise football club makes interesting reading. They were flying high in the Midlands league but a couple of players were sent off for abusive behaviour and received fines from the disciplinary The manager wanted the club to pay their fines of the players whist the chairman refused. The manager then left taking half the team with him. The FA would not let Greenwood sign any players to make up a team (the signing deadline had passed) so they were fined something like £250 a match for the rest of the season, racking up several thousand pounds in total They were subsequently relegated to the local leagues but the FA would not them play until the fines were paid so the chairman decided to close the club down!

Thank you for all the encouraging words everyone, I can confirm that everyone at the club is absolutely delighted to finally get a secure home for the club. I started playing rugby league in Nottingham in 1987 with what was then Nottingham Crusaders and in subsequent years we must have played at more than 20 different venues across the city and outside the city in that time! We have always been at our landlords mercy but not any more! We realised as a club that we would never reach our potential without a place to call our own so in 2014 (30th anniversary of rugby league in Nottingham) we launched Project 30 in a bid to start raising money for our own home. it took us over 4 years and countless hours of searching, looking at sites, hitting brick wall after brick wall until we finally got lucky with the Lenton Lane site. Even then it has taken us from June of last year until this week to get the lease and asset transfer sorted! in terms of what we bought, I think Saint 1 listed most of them although he missed the ride on mower. Lots of offers already from people who want to drive it! we did pay a significant sum for these assets, more than they are physically worth but the opportunity to obtain the site was so great that we didn't risk the haggle and grabbed it before any other club could beat us to it! our plan now is to first get in and get it playable and fit to host games. The clubhouse is a mess and the posts are yet to be concreted in. However we will do it despite the hard work needed and hope to be playing on it soon Longer term we are already drawing up plans to build a touch line club house and spectator area. So fundraising will start again tomorrow!

Anyone got details of friendlies/local challenge games planned over the festive period? Been almost a week since I last saw a game.....

Are the Pennine and Hull and District League fixtures available anywhere? When do the respective seasons start?

The problems that most clubs seem to be having is not so much a winter/summer issue, its more a change in peoples social habits and how they perceive sport in general. The majority of players these days do not see the sport as a be-all and end-all to what they do. Many players see sport as something they do but not something they want to do every weekend. There are a myriad of other things that people can do on a Saturday from playing sport to watching live events on Sky (including RL when the pro game clashes with the community game), going abroad for stag do's and cheap weekends, going to the many music festivals, visiting family around the country, weekends away etc etc not to mention injuries!! There are so many competing things to do and many players will slot rugby in around all of these things (that is not a criticism, its just a reality) but will not always make it a priority. The result is teams these days need a much bigger squad of players to fulfill a full season of fixtures and those do not will struggle to complete the full season. At my club, Nottingham Outlaws I see this pattern on a regular basis. After 4 league games this season we have used 33 players and only 4 have played in every game. I do not think this phenomenon is limited to rugby league, I hear the same story locally from rugby union and football teams.