EdinburghExile

Devolved into Jamaica and others.

Aye, we struggled and struggled. I'm surprised we were so close before the final round, I suppose they struggled too. Cheers

The Huddersfield archive is brilliant. Still awaiting many others to appear though. Someone did have a Castleford history online a while ago, but it was an unofficial site and disappeared at some point.

Aye, cheers Got lucky, and the rugby chat must have either been edited, or off camera. Quarter final next!

She is lovely.

The captain of one of the teams on tonight's may happen to frequent these forums quite often. I seem to remember there being a rugby union clue, after which said captain professed (in a perfectly neutral sense) to being much more versed in a more entertaining version of the sport. EDIT: I realise that pulling a quote from a year ago out of context isn't entirely useful - it was referring to Only Connect.

That's a fake beard surely?

Agh, bloody weather! Hope someone has a tape of last year's game. Or actually, I hope someone has an internet with them so they can watch any game at all!

1997 I think was their last season. Decades of struggle, they maybe made one cup semi-final in all their history?

Didn't Cas have a good run before they became professional?

University teams, if established can provide a steady source of players for external senior teams. Easier than working with schools, where the investment needs to be widespread and across years to produce results.

As I thought, other sporting duties diverted me yesterday. I'll try to get to this soon.

Aye, although probably not until the weekend. Pester me if I've not posted owt by Monday.

Nowt on the NWC league. Sorry!

I've recently got hold of a copy of the 74/75 RL stats book - I'll see what details it has on this.

Best of luck. It'll be tough for a while, but get those foundations in place, and things can grow surprisingly quickly.

Try Twitter? I've seen a Belgian RL account on there.

The Scottish Korfball League has implemented a similar version of this system for the 2013/14 season, and we're about to do the split. It seems to be working well so far (nothing to do with my club dominating things of course!) in that we've avoided the blow-outs that occurred last season, and that the teams on the cusp of the split (from both sides) have been fighting hard to get over the line. I might get a few whinges when I present my league secretary's report at the end of the season, but so far, so good.

Two main memories - watching the occasional shows when my dad was reffing and taking the ###### out of his thinning hair, and seeing St John Ellis diving over the line for Cas with his tackle (like, everything) flopping out of his shorts. From memory, he had nothing to be ashamed of.

I get the impression that the current situation is a continuing illustration of the evolution of sporting participation in wider society, and not just within RL, although things have been clouded somewhat by the change of playing season. Teenagers will always be pulled in different directions, that's something we can't do much about. I did the same when I was 17 and for six months decided that I'd rather spend my time boozing and chasing women than getting my head stoved in every Sunday. Club-wise, we've obviously lost the workplace teams, and teams based on pubs/social clubs have been in decline since at least the eighties - again, social change. It seems to me that well-organised clubs based around a deep community link, possibly encompassing more than one sport and bringing in other activities as well are the future - the Manchester club that combines RL and handball one recent example. Obviously, many local factors are also relevant - it's easier to get people together in a city, but maybe tougher to forge a club spirit. Clubs in smaller locations may struggle for sustainability, but then may gain from community links, shared facilities and official cooperation. All in all, it's still reliant upon an army of volunteers running the thing well, making it attractive, bringing in a steady flow of new players, being visible in the community, and above all enjoying it! But things move on - it's no good trying to keep doing what worked in 1975, at least not all the time. Imagination, energy and evolution are all important as well.

Bet they were a bunch of meat heads.

Ha, never knew the Eightlands had a rugby team, that was my underage drinking haunt of choice for a year or so. Last I knew it changed into a crappy theme pub (Irnwrx), everyone stopped drinking there, and it shut. That was in the 90s though, anything could have happened since. It was overlooking Dewsbury station, they may well have played at Ravensthorpe.

The Waterloo and Black Dog both got demolished in the last ten years or so as the builders' yards of that area got replaced by executive flats and the like. Had my first lock-in in the Waterloo a few years back when I was fifteen or so. Has to be said that that area had a severe overcapacity of boozers after all the industry moved elsewhere, the pub crawl around that bit of East Leeds could have you paralytic on a walk of less than a mile. This has reminded me of another old boozer from round there - the Prospect (became the Richmond I think and probably now shut down), which I know of cos my dad used to play for them, I assume in one of the Leeds leagues. Not sure if they were much good, but I've heard a few stories over the years.

I think they joined with Bisons and maybe Brassmoulders to form Hunslet Warriors. The pub is still there (or was last time I looked), East Leeds had a thriving junior section formed in 1979, Yew Tree an older open age pub team. I thought Easts had an open age side too, but not strong enough to cope with the NCL, and old rivalries were put aside for mutual benefit. Didn't NDLB become Hull Dockers? (National Docks Labour Board or something)

Weren't they only based there for their last few seasons?