Pigeon Lofter

Well, b***** me with a bent poker! What a turnaround, and well deserved too.

Blood and sand! Whatever next?

Thrills and spills galore, and not a punch thrown in anger (yet).

Very very entertaining stuff!

I was thinking of the Tyne Bridge, nationally more well known than the Runcorn one, but in truth we don't have loads of famous structures to choose from. It would be nice though if Sky hired commentators who were skilled wordsmiths endowed with rich vocabularies, rather than the usual suspects whose predictable dross we have to endure every game. Surely the IMG should have something to say about the generally miserable standard of the Sky commentary team and their pundits and how it impacts the image of the sport?

"under the pump" must be the phrase of the day....

Croft's pass was what the Aussie commentators call a "Harbour Bridge pass". Would be nice if our commentators came up with something similarly thoughtful and relevant...

Can anyone put names to faces? Thanks. (Obviously Mike Ford and CH and the Head Coach, but the others?) Interesting to read about developing Merton, what's going on there? (***Edit... article referred to Melrose playing fields, not Merton. I was having a "senior moment" there. ) I always thought there must be some people prepared to come forward and rescue the rugby club, but with each passing year that seemed increasingly unlikely.....until now! I do wonder if the stir now created by the IMG helped bring these backers together as surely it was now, or never. Rescued from the abyss would be an appropriate way of describing what has just happened.

Didn't the Bahraini owner of the soccer club/stadium pay just £3m to take over from the Administrators a couple of years ago? Seems a small price to pay if that includes the DW. Are Wigan Athletic a financial basket case?

Nice one!

Did you write your own Wikipedia entry, which describes you as "the greatest English rugby league footballer in history"? And, if not you, do you know who did?

Are Wests all London-based NZ expats?

It really was! I listened to the game on BBC Radio Manchester, it sounded superb. The partisan crowd produced an incredible atmosphere and at the end the Leigh fans were singing like drunken sailors on shore leave!

20-12. OMG!

18-12 to the Leopards!

All to play for!! 12-12.

Just seen the Catalans players singing away in the dressing room.....with all the tub-thumping and clapping....is there a standard RL song that the winning team does, or is it particular to each club? There is never any audio for these scenes when they are transmitted. When I played, the songs were on the coach on the way to games or in the bar afterwards, never in the changing room. And,I'm sure I would get locked up if I were to sing those songs today.

Catalans played hard without the usual dirty stuff, great to watch.

You are not wrong. I have just watched 3 NRL games back to back and of course was interested in how to English stars performed. Josh Hodgson was in fine form for Parramatta, Herbie Farnworth superb for Brisbane but Dom Young was spectacularly ineffectual for Newcastle, his tacking was indeed woeful.

A "worm burner" was a good description of that Saints try! I wonder if it will be re-used by the UK commentators?

The good news is this arrangement is only for one season and then the Hurricanes will move into the revamped main stadium. Sounds like a right result.

There's a vacant ground in Worcester in need of a team......

RU clubs up and down the country got enormous Government funding from the then Sports Council, whose motto was "Sport For All". All, of course unless you played any kind of League, then you were banned for life from playing RU or even being on their facilities or in their clubhouses. The Sports Council financing help build Union clubhouses the length and breadth of the nation under the fake presumption that it was Sport for All when it in fact was sport for everyone except Rugby League players. American gridiron players were welcomed, as were professional boxers, wrestlers, bodybuilders, or any other sportsmen or athletes but not anyone who had played RL above a schoolboy level as it would taint their sport. They got away with that perverse apartheid for years and in many cases that attitude still exists, you only have to peruse the BBC HYS comments on RU to see the bigotry that prevails to this day among the RahRah fraternity.

Any information regarding how much the AJ Bell was being sold for? Apparently, according to the M.E.N., the football club and Sale had already agreed to pay the asking price and it was only in the last few days that everything went pear shaped. So close, and yet so far. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/salford-city-fcs-planned-switch-25798167 A council spokesperson said: “The council and Coscos (stadium company) have been in extensive negotiations with partners about the sale of the stadium - but unfortunately we have not received a proposal which satisfies our aspirations for this great community asset. We are now looking at other future options." Nicky Butt, co-owner of the soccer club says there will be an appeal about the councils decision : "We are still in discussions with the council and appeal [over a move to the AJ Bell]. We are very confident that we will get it sorted out eventually..." An appeal? And those future options the council staff member mentions....well, if its not Salford City or Sale Sharks, surely that leaves Sebastian Gerrard as the last man standing?

I was thinking that SG could well be the future owner of both SRD and the AJ Bell.