JonM

Modern telescopes that quickly scan the sky, work out where they are and where all the stars are using software and then point themselves at the thing you want to look at are getting to be really affordable. Once you get into the world of taking photos - even a phone camera can do a very good long exposure, you can get pretty impressive amounts of detail. I use an old pair of 10x50 binoculars which are probably on a par with the telescope Galileo found the moons of Jupiter with and let you see Saturn's ring etc. Dark skies make more of a difference than exactly what equipment you have. In Cambridge, the university puts on a free astronomy lecture every week, followed by a public observing session using the university telescopes. The massive Victorian era telescopes in the observatory domes aren't as good as the modern telescopes with cameras that the slightly odd blokes from the local astronomy society turn up with in the boots of their cars.

Manchester & Liverpool get water from North Wales too. United Utilities has a regionally integrated system, so water for their customers can be drawn from the pennines, wales, lake district, local reservoirs etc. We don't have a national grid for water as such, but there is a fair bit of regional distribution that goes on, even in the drier bits of the country. Near me, for example, water gets taken out of the river Ouse in Norfolk, goes into an underground pipeline that comes out in the River Kennet near Newmarket, and then there's another pipeline that takes it another few miles into the river Stour. So water moves from the east anglian fens (not that much rain, but not many people) into the Essex rivers (Essex is also relatively dry, but has a lot more people).

RLIF CEO wasn't he?

Train to Bergen is not to be missed - or if you really have to miss it, try to do the Flam-Voss section. A lot more interesting than Oslo, for sure.

I've only ever used it as a place to catch a ferry from - and will do the same this year as I'm off to run round the coast of Tiree. Be interested to hear about your trip. Currently pondering a trip to Svalbard. I've been trying to avoid flying in recent years, but I'm not sure I'm up for a long boat trip in the arctic.

They seemed to be having fun last night anyway, losing at home to Palace. "Let's pretend we scored a goal" got the whole stadium rocking, along with the chants of "sign him up, sign him up" from a pitch invader who missed an open goal.

They have some influence though - the visa regulations are specific to rugby league and were drawn up with input from th RFL and the players union.

Mark Croston has been head of England Touch for quite a few years, so I don't think it's that.

Don't see it happening tbh. They *really* care about being better than Ipswich. When Norwich won 5-1 at Portman Road a couple of years ago, pretty much every road sign at the Norfolk border had a reference to it. The whole county supports the team. They love the fact that people like Delia & Stephen Fry own the club rather than dubious oligarchs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Anglian_derby

Next Aussie that sends me a comment saying "the easiest way to get a rapid test is to play England" gets a punch :-)

Still, at least the Wuhan street markets have lost their record for "worst use of a bat".

Outside of Agnew & the BBC commentary team + pals, everywhere I read before a ball was bowled seemed to be expecting a 5-0 whitewash, for all the above reasons, with the only hope of avoiding that that the 5th test might not be played, or we might get rain somewhere, or a double ton from Root to draw a game. Root has still won more games than he's lost as captain - his percentage win record is pretty similar to Strauss & Vaughan, and it's not like England play lots of tests against the weaker countries. Three tests in West Indies in March at least gives us a chance to play one of the other weaker test teams and perhaps find a win.

Yep, really have to hope that the penny has dropped at the RFL. We only have a long-term future as a sport if more people play, coach, referee and spectate. Touch/ tag are the best way to achieve that.

Yes, Hick scored over a hundred centuries in first-class cricket, second highest scorer of all time in first class cricket. As you say, he had to wait 7 years to qualify for England. Fairly mixed test career though, not well handled by the England team.

Every other forum I frequent was debating before the tour started whether England can sneak a draw in any of the games and make it a 4-0 rather than 5-0 loss. This is the only place I've seen any optimism at all - you've certainly shifted the dial a bit

Broad overtakes Graeme Hick in the all-time England test runs table. Would not have guessed that, but I guess he was an all-rounder originally.

I thought they were playing out of Birmingham & Solihull RU now?

I'm missing 5 now - Cornwall, Midlands (been to Coventry a few times though), West Wales, Toulouse (been to several other grounds there though), Broncos (been to 10+ of their old grounds). Do we count Sheffield as their new ground is on the site of Don Valley? Have Oldham confirmed where they're playing this year?

They owe a quarter of a million to AB Sundecks, but a pretty healthy looking set of accounts overall. When was the last time a RL club had a share offering ?

Not forgetting that it'll be in Newcastle, in October, with hopefully 50 000 people making some noise. We're a different proposition under those conditions.

ECB have found a solution for Covid. Anyone who puts on an England shirt becomes unable to catch anything.

You have half a team of ex-Widnes players in that squad... Think you're right about Luis Roberts - looked very good for Swinton last year and I would expect him to be around the top of the try-scorers charts for the season if he gets to play enough games.

Indeed - if it was just one person's word against another (and we don't know that it was) - and one party already has form for not co-operating/ providing actual facts to the same disciplinary group some months earlier, whose word are you going to believe?

Presumably for the same reason that Fev, Leigh etc. have done - to get access to some better players. Are there any current Championship clubs that haven't received players through a dual-registration deal at some point? I can't think of any.

Biggest fanbase in the championship (and bigger than much of SL)? An academy side that's in with the SL academy teams in 2022?