Hopping Mad

I did give Dewsbury's media guy some feedback. His email address was included in the club's tweet about abandoning printed programmes. He hasn't responded.

Simple and effective. Effective because it's simple, key to good design. Other clubs please take note.

Shame. I'll now not bother going to Dewsbury this season (just as I sidestepped Batley last). I see Dewsbury claim their programme is unsustainable yet amateur NCL neighbours Dewsbury Celtic, Dewsbury Moor and Thornhill Trojans all manage to produce one, on much lower crowds and with far fewer resources. Funny, that.

Where are these designers trained? Awful.

National Conference League Barrow Island issued a glossy 16-pager (£1, on top of £2 admission) for their Challenge Cup first round tie with Rhondda Outlaws. Island's programme seems to have improved no end since the budget effort produced for their first season back in the NCL.

I gather Milford Marlins issued a printed programme for their Challenge Cup first round tie (11/1/20) with Wigan St Judes. Suggests they'll continue once the National Conference League season begins.

Sherwood Wolf Hunt (versus Wests Warriors, Challenge Cup First Round, 12/1/20) £2.50, 12pp (including raffle)

Faisons fleurir - make it bloom...

You'd be best getting in touch with the club. Contacts for Normanton on the NCL website are secretary Katrina Daw (k_daw@sky.com/07876401560) and chair Joan Langley (07949222857). If they don't know, nobody will! Stacks of great walking in the Haworth/Oxenhope/Hebden Bridge area. Some decent stuff on Rombalds Moor, above Keighley, too.

They must have dropped the price. Maybe weren't selling enough. £3 is on the cover of the Coventry issue (see image on last season's thread). That's what I was charged.

Challenge Cup gets started this weekend. I assume most (if not all) the host National Conference League clubs will issue programmes. Mansfield Woodhouse-based Sherwood Wolf Hunt, who play Wests Warriors on Sunday (1.30), have confirmed programmes will be available from a pop-up shop in the Debdale Park clubhouse.

Did Keighley reduce the price of their programme during the 2019 season? I went to the Coventry game in March, and the programme was £3. A bit steep, for the third tier, I thought.

Spoke to Simon Hall, of Wigginton-based All Design & Print Ltd, a few weeks back. He intimated he'd be continuing, in 2020, to produce printed programmes for Dewsbury Rams, Heworth, Hunslet (monthly magazine), York Acorn and York City Knights.

Leeds issued for the Boxing Day friendly with Wakefield. A slimmer version of Blue & Amber was on sale for £2...

Yes, I know. Thought that was a daft idea, too.

Meh. Batley have unique colours, cerise and fawn (OK, claret and amber), yet want to play in red and white hoops. Why?

The away shirt looks a lot better when it's tucked in - then you can't see the ghastly graduation into white. Widnes have previous for all-red away strips, don't they. Two shirts reflecting tradition. Good!

By coincidence, I'm reading this book at the moment. According to the introduction, Mike Brocken watched the club during its 'City' (rather than 'Stanley') era, albeit only in the Sixties. On page 104, there is an image of the match programme for City's game against the Australia tourists on October 10th, 1956. It was the tour opener. Curran is listed at No 2 (maybe a different Curran if he's on the wing?) for the Knotty Ash Stadium fixture (neither Anfield nor Goodison Park were available). The match was played on a Wednesday afternoon. A 4,712 crowd produced receipts of £595. The Aussies won 40-12. Interestingly, Mike states, on page 110: "...throughout the 1950s Liverpool-born players [at City] were practically nonexistent". Was the former Sefton RU Curran an exception? Also, on P109, there's a City team picture from the late 1950s. Not all the players are identified. Might the ex-Sefton RU Curran be one of the 'mystery men'? Mike (Dr Mike Brocken) is a senior lecturer in music at Liverpool Hope University. Might be an idea to contact him directly via https://www.hope.ac.uk

If we're recommending books, I recently bought, read and enjoyed Mike Brocken's Liverpool City RLFC, Rugby League in a Football City (London League Publications, £16.95, ISBN 978-1903659-40-3). Apologies if this has been flagged up earlier in the thread. I watched a bit of Huyton then Runcorn Highfield while studying at Liverpool University. Mike revealed quite a few things I didn't know about.

Thanks for posting. I hadn't seen this before. Some interesting interviews with spectators, the positive, upbeat content of which seemed to take the Beeb's Tony Gubba completely by surprise. I see the piece is introduced by Bob Wilson. Recalling that historic time, in The Fulham Dream, Rugby League Tackles London (ISBN 0-9526064-9-6), Fulham chairman Harold Genders wrote: "The only sore point of the whole weekend, which annoyed me considerably, was that Bob Wilson, the former Arsenal goalkeeper and self-styled sports expert, was of the opinion that rugby league would never take off in London. I detected a note of concern. Maybe his hallowed game of football felt threatened. In any event, what did he know about rugby league or, for that matter, the Fulham venture? Yet he was prepared to dismiss it in one remark. I have always maintained that football can live together with rugby league, and that London is large enough for both of us. His statement, to me at least, appeared to have a touch of small-mindedness."

Interesting Red Star's spelling of rugby league comes out the same way Eddie Waring pronounced it - ragbi liga. :-)

The online version of the York Press reports York's new stadium will not be ready until October, which means 2018-19 isn't, after all, the football club's last season at Bootham Crescent: The long-delayed new Community Stadium for York may not now be ready until October. Fifteen years after plans were first proposed to create the new stadium, it was hit by fresh delays in February. Outgoing council leader Cllr Ian Gillies told The Press that he would be “disappointed if it wasn’t ready in the autumn” but he said he “would hope that it would be ready by October”. City of York Council said it was unable to confirm an opening date and declined to comment on the progress of the scheme. Developers are currently on the site of the stadium’s leisure complex, where work is being carried out to install seats in the West Stand and the swimming pools are being tiled. York City Football Club will not be able to start the football season at the new venue and by the end of October they will be about a quarter of the way through their 2019-20 campaign. York City Knights will also not be able to move in during the current rugby league season as previously planned. The Press revealed in February that the 8,000-seat stadium and leisure centre had been hit by fresh delays. The site was due to open in July but the council were not able to say whether the project has been delayed by weeks or by months, or explain the reasons for the hold-up. The Knights were due to play their last two home games of the current Betfred Championship season – against Bradford Bulls on July 20 and Featherstone Rovers on August 18 - at the Community Stadium, but were told this will not happen. The delay means the clubs will continue to play at Bootham Crescent until the new stadium is ready. A planning application to build 80 new homes on the ground was submitted by developers Persimmon at the end of January. Senior councillors were told at a meeting in September 2018 that construction work was on schedule and due to be completed by May 2019, with the stadium set to open in July. A spokesman for City of York Council, speaking in February, said: “A significant amount of progress has been made to date, both on and off site, with all stands now visible. “Work will continue with all partners to minimise any delay and open the York Stadium Leisure Complex as soon as possible, without compromising on quality or safety.” Plans for the new stadium were given the green light by the council’s planning committee back in March 2015. The development will also include leisure facilities featuring new swimming pools, a gym, dance studios, outdoor pitches, an indoor climbing area and aerial high ropes course. There will also be an IMAX cinema, a ten pin bowling alley and a mini indoor golf centre. National restaurant chains TGI Fridays and Zizzi’s are also set to open branches at the complex. And there will be a community hub with health services, a library area, York Against Cancer shop. Both York City and York City Knights have been unavailable for comment.

I asked about this. Gav Wilson replied: It's gonna be one of those 50/50 'Desso' pitches I believe. Not sure about the undersoil heating!

8,000 (all seater). Hard to say how much the stadium is costing because - according to the gov.uk blurb - it's part of a complex to feature a sports hall, a swimming pool, a dance studio, a gym, a 14-screen IMAX cinema, a community hub (with offices for community sports clubs), offices and a shop for York Against Cancer, NHS outpatient services, shops and restaurants, and catering and hospitality areas. Whole lot = circa £44m.

Will the pitch be grass or synthetic? If it's grass, will there be undersoil heating (or similar)?