Hopping Mad

Think he's planning to expand into club cricket this summer. Maybe rugby league next! Are you doing York's 2022 programme, Simon?

Just flicking through a Huddersfield-Saints Challenge Cup fourth round programme from 30/1/94. Couple of Yorkshire Post clippings inside. Some interesting attendances for ties that day. They include Bramley (1,187), Carlisle (2,100), Hunslet (1,258) and Rochdale Hornets (3,396). 5,155 at Leeds Road for the Fartown match.

This is very sad news. I always found Des a tremendously exciting player; the sort of athlete spectators relished getting his hands on the ball.

Check out FootiePrint, who is based in Oswestry. He's got so much work this season, he's had to turn away clubs.

Yet, oddly, several non-league football clubs very close to Oldham - such as Ashton United, Hyde United and Stalybridge Celtic - still manage to produce a printed match programme (all £2). Are any of those clubs significantly better supported than Oldham RLFC? Last three league (Northern Premier League) attendances: Ashton 223, Hyde 471, Stalybridge 563. Incidentally, MatchDayCreative, a North West-based one-man band specialising in producing very smart printed programmes for small clubs, is responsible for the Ashton and Stalybridge programmes.

That's not quite true. Post-1895, most 'rugby' clubs in Cumberland and Westmorland switched to the Northern Union - it just took until the Forties for a professional club to emerge.

Is Roger Halstead not still around to fly the flag for print?

Oldham are issuing a digital programme for their Sunday cup tie with Lock Lane. It's £3. Presumably what they plan for the rest of the season. Meh. https://roughyeds.co.uk/2022/01/digital-programme-out-soon/

It may be a decision Oldham take themselves: in the Championship, they seem to play at Bower Fold (Stalybridge Celtic FC - a tidy little stadium with cover on all four sides); in League One, they play at Whitebank (much smarter after a revamp, including plastic pitch, but not great viewing when there's anything over 1,000 spectators).

Whitebank isn't Championship standard.

In my case, address change = allegiance change. Did most of my growing up between Halifax and Huddersfield. We weren't locals - both my parents are from Sheffield - so saw nothing wrong with attending Fartown one week then Thrum Hall the next. Going to university, with several clubs close by, got me started supporting the game rather than a particular club. St Helens and Warrington were nearest therefore the clubs I watched most during three years in Liverpool. Also saw a number of games at Runcorn, Widnes and Wigan. When I worked in west Cumbria, I watched Whitehaven (though I did get along, every so often, to Barrow, Carlisle and Workington). When I worked on Teesside, and lived at Great Ayton, I started watching York - because they were the nearest pro club. It was a 45-minute drive down the A19. Moving again (via Bronte Country [I went to Cougar Park fairly often], Devon then Lincolnshire), I've lived in York 13 years. They're the club I watch most - maybe four or five times a season at home. One or two away. But happy to go anywhere. Looking forward to attending Monday's York-Fev game!

Yes, Haven were in my mind, too. Be great if they could build on last season's considerable achievements. I was in Barrow a few weeks ago (to watch the football team), and had a wander into Craven Park. Got talking to a builder, one of many volunteers helping improve the ground's facilities. Lots of good things happening at Barrow, he said. He was looking forward to Barra, Haven and Town being in the same division. Should be some cracking Cumbria derby matches.

Is there a case for Workington Town?

Over the years, I watched a lot of the National Conference League. NCL clubs really do seem happy where they are. Yes, they enjoy the occasional opportunity, through the Challenge Cup, to play semi-pro opposition, but none appear to have any ambition to 'win promotion' to League One. This talk of variable quality in the third tier brings to mind a remark made by author Paul Wilson. In his book about Wigan, he said this of the late 70s/early 80s Second Division: "It is fair to say a majority of its clubs were only there because there was no third or fourth division to fall into."

The 'true pyramids' of football and rugby union are increasingly overstated. In both sports, the gap between each step on the ladder seems to widen as the seasons pass. Without considerable financial assistance, it's becoming harder and harder to climb those pyramids. Look at how many clubs have got into financial difficulties - some even folding - in the attempt.

Programme (£5, w/a) confirmed for Saturday's Leigh MR v North Wales Crusaders Challenge Cup tie at Twist Lane.

Not that easy. For example, I emailed Sheffield Eagles recently. They couldn't even be bothered to reply. Not unusual, according to a couple of longstanding Eagles fans I chatted to before the recent Bentley-Stanningley Challenge Cup tie. My stance is 'no programme, no custom'. Happy to stick with that again this season. I'll get over to Barrow, for sure. And I'll be at next Monday's York-Fev game.

At the Bentley-Stanningley game today, I had a brief chat with a lad from Burton-on-Trent. He'd watched the Thornhill-RAF Challenge Cup tie the previous afternoon. Said Trojans had done a programme - a "very good one". Bentley's was a glossy eight-pager for a quid.

https://yorkcityknights.com/club/club-statement-goodchild-becomes-knights-chairman/

Bentley tweet there'll be a programme at this afternoon's Challenge Cup tie with Stanningley.

Well, there are at least two amateur rugby league clubs in Devon. I guess an 'on the road' game there wouldn't do any harm. But, essentially, as you allude, Cornwall RLFC have a big enough job, at least initially, laying down roots in and attracting support from the Falmouth (and wider) area.

York have confirmed there won't be a programme for their pre-season friendly against Castleford. But they add: A new matchday programme will be available for competitive matches throughout 2022, starting at our Betfred Championship opener against Featherstone Rovers on Monday 31st January.

Three-quarter length shirt sleeves. The dank gents' loo under the little stand on the Thrum Hall Lane side at Halifax's old ground. [I'm joking about the second, of course, as anybody who experienced that health hazard loo will realise]

I'm all for expansion (despite its less than successful history in Britain). As others have said, the distances - and awful roads - are a major stumbling block in the West Country, should Cornwall RLFC decide to play a game in Devon. I lived and worked in Exeter for a while, in the late 1990s (and the traffic's got much worse since), so experienced it first hand. In summer, of course, when the bulk of the visitors are present, travelling by car is particularly time-consuming.

Seems Orrell St James hope to have a printed programme for Saturday's Challenge Cup tie with British Army. I was told, via Twitter, the club's "IT team are working on it to make the print deadline".