Jeff Stein

1 Leeds, Huddersfield, St Helens, Warrington, Catalans, Salford 2 St Helens 3 Wakefield

Thoroughly enjoyed the two games shown today

Rabbitohs, Eels, Broncos, Roosters, Dolphins, Storm, Knights, Dragons 288 2 Panthers v. Rabbitohs

Wigan, Huddersfield, Warrington, Leeds, St Helens, Hull Wigan v. Catalans HKR v. Warrington

Eels, Warriors, Panthers, Sea Eagles, Cowboys, Sharks, Roosters, Tigers 528 7 Tigers v Titans

Warrington, Catalans, Huddersfield, Wigan, Hull KR, Saints Most points: Warrington Least points: Leigh

Enjoyed Dockers Hurricanes. Entertaining game. Good coverage

1 Salford, Warrington, Leeds, Wigan, Catalans, St Helens 2 Wigan 3 Leigh

Very disappointing. Absolutely no positives can be taken from that.

Huey Piano Smith at 89. Presume the rocking pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu finally caught up with him don't you just know it.

Received a letter from my bank entitled we are changing how we support you. Turns out they are closing my branch. Theoretically I suppose they are changing how they support me by moving me from being able to walk to the last bank in town to forcing me to drive to another town for the same service. However, they take the biscuit for the sheer chutzpah in trying to suggest that they are doing me a favour and they think I am dim enough not to see through it for the patronising management speak it is. (Barclays btw, but it could have been any of them)

Brentwood Eels play at the Old Brentwoods club. Main pitch is good quality with banking round it, but I guess there will be the problem of fitting in with the union season. The club is a couple of miles out of town and difficult to do by public transport (no 21 bus to Ongar from the station. Get out at the end of the straight mile and then 10 minute walk along Ashwells Road. Not sure if buses are once every hour or once every two hours on a Saturday. Certainly non existent on a Sunday).

If you like beer the York Tap at the railway station is pretty unmissable

When I lived in Roth just outside Nurnberg in the early nineties, the museum was open in the parade stand, but I thought it was shut later as the local authorities thought anything that brought attention to it might be dangerous. It may be it has reopened since I last wandered past to go to see 1.fc Nurnberg play (or more usually lose). Back then the area around it was used as overnight parking for trucks and kids used to kick footballs or play tennis against it. I thought that was the right level of disrespect. I have just watched the Last Days in Vietnam and it got me thinking about the communist insurrections in South East Asia. It is generally not known in the West that there was one in Thailand and in fact went on long after the fall of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. I find it incredible to think that my wife spent the first five years of her life in a warzone as the communists' main area of control in Phetchabun province was only a couple of valleys away. The insurrection only came to an end in the early 80s through negotiation and also a split in the communists between pro-Chinese and pro-Vietnamese camps. Although not on my many westerners' bucket lists or indeed guide books, now you can still see on Khao Kho the remnants of a communist camp (next to at certain times of the year a rather attractive waterfall) which is in a national park, a Cleopatra's needle stylee monument to the rapprochement and a rather interesting museum, which was an army camp. As with the French and Americans in Vietnam, the Thais set up army bases on top of hills while the jungle around was controlled by the communists. They would airlift in by helicopters men and supplies. As an odd footnote the old communists after the insurrection ended became ultra monarchists and have regularly taken part in the conservative yellow shirt demonstrations before the most recent coup.

I gave up when they didn't even bother to send me renewal details when I was a season ticket holder so I can't imagine they will want to contact me four or five years later

My very good friend Ray Blumbergs. Despite decades in the south not denting his Yorkshire accent, people were usually surprised to find out that he had been born in Latvia and Ray was actually short for Rainis rather than the usual English derivations. He arrived in the UK after the second world war as a child refugee and the family moved to Hull, where his Father, who was a master mariner, found employment. He was bitten by the rugby league bug at an early age and supported Rovers (he joyfully remembered that often at this time regularly only Doncaster kept them off the bottom of the pile), but would also go to Hull FC games too. After graduating and a period in New Zealand, he moved to London and ran a small transport business out of his home on a small industrial estate on the Acton/Park Royal borderlands. When Fulham was established, he had a professional team to watch again. However, Ray always had a particular interest in the community game, something which grew as he got older. He would cheerfully recall how he would phone Henry Miles, the then secretary of the London League, on a Sunday morning, who would then phone the referees to find out which games were actually on for Ray to attend. After retirement, he spent a period touring Europe in a motor home, but, having sold his home, bought a flat in Hemel within walking distance of the Stags' ground. This was quite deliberate. For the remainder of his retirement, he watched them play, but also involved himself in the club, both on a social level and helping out around the club. After the enclosement of the ground, people may remember him acting as the gateman up until the elevation to League 1, but he was always willing to do odd jobs and jump behind the bar to help out. I first met Ray when back from university well over 30 years ago. His season ticket seat was next to that of my late Father at Crystal Palace when Fulham in their last year under that name were playing there. Since then we have attended many games at Fulham/Crusaders/Broncos (the Tony Tank Gordon period being a particular pleasure for Ray), Skolars, Hemel and many community clubs together. There were also trips away from the south, a journey to York in Ray's flatbed truck through a blizzard to watch I think a Regal Trophy tie on a snow covered pitch being a particular memory. Even in the last year, when he was becoming more frail, Ray attended games at Skolars, Broncos and St Albans as well as his regular walks across to Pennine Way and the clubhouse. He was perpetually good humoured, thanks to a very individual outlook on life. He would often say he considered life existed just for his own amusement. He passed away earlier this week at the age of 83. I will miss him desperately. There are further tributes on Hemel's facebook page to show the impact he had on so many. He would have been amused by the irony of those tributes and this post, as he never had a smartphone or computer and had never accessed the internet.

My secretary and her three boys were taken by her Father to the London semi. None had ever attended a rugby match of either code before. Her Father had decided to go because he thought the ticket prices were a bargain for a semi-final of a World Cup (clearly hadn't thought to read this forum beforehand). They thoroughly enjoyed both the atmosphere (thought the supporters were great in comparison to what they had previously experienced at football) and the game to a degree that a couple of the boys want to play it now.

Gutted that there's only 10 minutes left

Talking of annual Christmas firsts, have the Mail or Telegraph published articles yet about attempts to cancel Christmas?

Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis

After his successes in his last two roles, it must surely be time to welcome back Zimbabwean super fielder Gus Mackay into the fold.

Arguing that there is no consistency between the NRL and Super League disciplinaries does appear rather odd. As does using player welfare arguments to say dangerous tackles shouldn't be punished

The feeling in the clubhouse is pretty positive. Given what was done to us, most fans feel happy as to where the club now is on the pitch

Skolars win a bizarrely random game 38-34