JonM

Playing in Kingston tomorrow, of course.

Groups are largely as expected. Barrow, Whitehaven, Workington Bradford, Dewsbury, Keighley Newcastle, Wakefield, York Halifax, Oldham, Rochdale Batley, Featherstone, Hunslet N. Wales, Swinton, Widnes Doncaster, Midlands, Sheffield

Some teams have 2 home fixtures, others no home fixtures (Barrow, Widnes, Sheffield, Fev, Halifax, Wakefield, Bradford). Was that expected?

Groups and fixtures announced this afternoon, 2PM.

Indeed - https://dewsburyrams.co.uk/2023/11/27/giants-dual-registration-agreement/ - announced earlier in the week.

Seems like potentially a big deal - he has been involved in some pretty high profile property developments, and quite a lot of charity/philanthropy. He's from Cas originally, previously been a club sponsor for some years.

To add to the previous post about who was partnered with who, Castleford have confirmed the link-up with Batley, and Huddersfield announced partnership with Dewsbury. Still no dual-reg partner announced by St. Helens, Leigh, Salford or Hull FC.

Blimey, lot of well known people today.

Bit less than 1cm here - looks nice but the sun will melt it all by lunch I reckon.

I assumed TRL had recruited Jamie Peacock to run some kind of page where readers write in with their problems.

When I lived in York, there were peacocks who had taken up residence in the tiny front garden in the rows of terraced houses near to us - the most un-countryside place you could imagine. Lots of notices up on lamp-posts to see if anyone knew who they were. RSPB and council both said they're wild birds, you mustn't disturb them in any way, even though it was obvious that a cat/ dog/ fox was going to eat the chicks as soon as they were born. I believe they ended up being bundled into the back of a van and dropped off at a caravan site a couple of miles away which coincidentally already had quite a lot of peacocks.

My old boss (she was German) had something like this pinned up in her office:

It was one of the big derbies in the past - biggest crowd of the season for both clubs, often a lot of punch-ups. I remember Patrick Entat talking about the Hull derby and saying it reminded him of home. Lots of players who had played for the other club, or who had family members who did. With Carpentras being out of Elite 1 for much of the last 20 years, that rivalry has gone.

[Above may be wrong/ out of date]

Wigan - Wakefield Trinity Catalans - was Toulouse in 2023 St. Helens - Was Swinton in 2023, haven't seen any announcement for 2024 Hull KR - Featherstone R Leigh - Rochdale H in 2023, haven't seen any announcement Warrington - Widnes Salford - ? Leeds - Halifax Huddersfield - ? Hull - was Newcastle Thunder in 2023, haven't seen any announcement Castleford - expected to be Batley London - nope

I think what I said might be interpreted as underplaying the things that parents of teenage girls have to worry about, which wasn't my intention either. And yes, those four boys in Wales shook me for the same reason.

That game was 18 years ago - and I certainly would never describe the atmosphere there as a cauldron - more carnival like with food, drink, the band and so on. Minimes is no longer a viable option (and even back then it was not big enough for SL). If not Ernest Wallon, it will be back to Blagnac I guess, which is probably the right size.

I'd expect 22x (return flights + 1 week in a hotel) + 1x (cost of renting stadia and putting on a game) probably comes to below 40% of 25x (return flights + 3 weeks in a hotel) + 3x (cost of renting stadia and putting on a game). The hotel and gameday costs will be higher than the cost of flights. Plus they could, you know, actually make an effort to sell one game. Of course, I assume tv revenue would be less for one game rather than 3 and probably that's true for sponsorships etc. but we don't seem to be setting the world on fire there either. I'd rather we had a 3 match series. But if the RFL are not able to organise that in a way that makes money, I'd rather a well promoted and staged world cup semi-final rematch than nothing at all.

Not 100% convinced by that - teenage boys are a pretty stupid bunch on the whole. Much more likely to be the victim of a violent assault/ be murdered by someone they don't know, massively more likely to be in car accidents, much more likely to commit suicide, much more likely to go to prison. I don't think you ever stop worrying, but they certainly take up far less of your time as they get older.

I mean, England have lost to Italy and Scotland have drawn with New Zealand (in 2016). But the reality is that in terms of domestic playing numbers, Serbia, Wales, Czechia and Greece are all ahead of Italy and Scotland. And a "long-term, sustainable" NH competition presumably means not relying on English & Aussie players with the right grandparents but actually having reasonable numbers of kids playing feeding through into a proper elite academy type structure and all that goes into producing professional players in any numbers.

I wonder whether there's an argument for a one-off England v Samoa game rather than a 3 match series. It clearly reduces costs and potentially allows Samoa to still take part in the series with Australia, NZ etc. If we're going to get an aggregate of below 40K for 3 games anyway, then a one-off at say Bolton or Elland Road might be more profitable.

There's no way any "long-term, sustainable NH international programme" involves the full England team playing other NH countries in the next decade and probably even longer.

Two songs I like very much, to be fair. There is perhaps a little echo in this one too?

Snur visible out of our kitchen window this morning, up on the hills. All melted now, although the webcams at Ribblehead showing a but up on Whernside & Ingleborough.

There's the obvious famous ones - Surfin' USA (Beach Boys) & Chuck Berry's Sweet little sixteen (& Fun Fun Fun vs Johnny B Goode). Also Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London vs Sweet Home Alabama Elastica's Connection vs Three Girl Rumba (Wire) Elastica's Wake Up vs No more heroes (Stranglers) Run DMC "It's tricky" vs Toni Basil "Hey Mickey" - maybe tenuous The Cars "Shake it up" vs Oasis "Be here now"