Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

Wholly agree with you. If their current rate of development continues, you can add Darrelatour and Martin in the backs too, and not forgetting Romano and Laguerre, though I think they are a bit older. A challenge that Joel Tomkins will face in the short term is whether to omit experienced imports in favour of blossoming local talent. For instance, I presume that Reimis Smith is currently injured, but when he regains fitness, what then...?

And confirmed as official on Les Dracs' website.

Well, this thread gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'discussing Uganda'!

Garry Schofield is 60 today. Also with a birthday today is Jamie Farr (Corporal Clinger in M*A*S*H), who is 91.

Yes. He scored an excellent try, here at about 1.12 Dragons Catalans › News › 2025 › June › The Tries - Catalans Dragons vs Huddersfield He has made the official 'team of the week'. His fellow centre, young Frenchman and try-scorer, Leo Darrelatour, must have been close to being selected too. It wasn't just that they scored tries; they were enterprising when in possession, hard-working and diligent in defence, and imbued a sense of infectious enthusiasm throughout the whole team. Lovely to see.

I would love to say that I saw that coming. However, I didn't and expected the Giants to win. Nevertheless, the attitudinal change in Les Dracs in the Leigh game had been noteworthy, so I always thought they would keep it close. And I noted in that game how some of the home grown talent seemed to be the source of that revival. Rouge had been a case in point and we saw the logical extension of that today. Indeed, I particularly enjoyed the spirit of the local, French youngsters. We had been told that Darrelatour and Martin were speedy in attack, but I thought the effort and soundness of their defence was very good. It was almost as if they inspired the older players. Even Keary almost looked the part and I think I saw him smile!

Thomas Lacans has signed to stay at Toulouse Olympique XIII until the end of the 2026 season.

I will take your reading of this book and mentioning that on here as good omens for me, HG. I have a job interview at Salisbury Cathedral on Wednesday of next week. It's just part-time and only for a year (as maternity cover), but would be enjoyable, I hope. I think the current equivalent of master mason, Osmund, would be either clerk of works, Gary, or head mason, Lee!

I wonder exactly when in September the adjourned court hearing will be reconvened. I am no expert in these matters, but I would have assumed that if a winding-up request is successful, then the company to whom it applied must cease trading forthwith (unless there is a right of appeal). As I understand it, Salford's last three SL fixtures are scheduled for the 4th, 14th and 19th September. I wonder if they might be forced out of business by the court's decision just before the regular season ends. In such a scenario, presumably all their playing records would be expunged from the SL table and, suddenly, with the play-offs imminent, one or two clubs might find their league position improve or deteriorate, as the case may be, depending on how successful they were against Salford. Interesting prospect!

That sounds really interesting, SFG. Do you have a link to that postcode page of the BTO website. I cannot find it, but that's probably just the limitations of my IT skills!

I last heard a cuckoo on 2nd June. However, yesterday in the New Forest, Mrs WWD and I were reminded that some are still around when one shot across the heathland in front of us at speed, closely followed - just about within touching distance - by an agitated, small, brown bird, probably a pipit. I think the cuckoo will have been a female and possibly caught in the act of easing out an egg from the small, ground nesting bird's nest. Apparently, there used to be a belief that a young cuckoo, having been fully raised by its foster parents, would kill them before leaving the nest. As far as I am aware, this isn't true.

I have decided that lizards are like London buses. This morning's New Forest dog walk brought sightings of first one lizard (first of the year) and then, minutes later, another. So, none for ages, and then two come along. It's the weather no doubt. The strong breeze of the last few days has finally dropped, there is sunshine and hazy cloud, and temperatures well over 20 degrees C.

As SFG suggests, it could be a case of needs must. That said, whenever Mrs WWD (or less frequently, me!) is in the garden doing weeding, lawn cutting and so on, we do get one or two blackbirds pretty close - probably about a yard away - and as we move on, they move in.

Agreed. It is probably a truism to say that we all think that our youthful heyday years were when popular music was at its best, but you really were spoilt for choice in the 1960s, when I was in my teens. For me, the likes of the Beatles, Stones and Bee Gees were all very good, but the Beach Boys were the best. At a personal level, my love of choral music which, nowadays, has a particular emphasis on the Anglican church choral tradition, can be traced back directly to my love of Brian Wilson's musical work with the Beach Boys. He spelled out for me the scope for human voices. When, in due course, I learnt that he oversaw and arranged all their productions, my admiration for him only grew. That was in contrast to, for instance, the Beatles, who were latterly quite reliant on the skills of George Martin to bring the best out of the band's compositions. I will, of course, remember the well known Beach Boys numbers, but also the brilliance of less well known pieces like Cabinessence and Surf's Up. He clearly found life challenging in its latter stages. "I guess" he "just wasn't made for these times." RIP, Brian.

A brilliant and long overdue knighthood! Both for Billy personally and for TGG in general. As a young teenager, recently moved to the Wigan and Leigh area from rural Gloucestershire due to my dad's change of job, I was invited to see my first RL game by a new school friend, 'Ibby' as we all called him (Ian Ibbotson from Atherton; dad a local miner, mum worked in Laburnum Mills) It was Saturday, 25th January, 1964, and the opposition were Fev. I was told to look out for Boston. His first touch was an unusually poor pass from Ashton; Boston stretched back and got fingertips to it, but the ball went into touch. Second pass to Billy was much better. The Fev winger made an heroic attempt to stand his ground, but just got brushed aside. I had a new hero!