Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

Yes. Dragons Catalans › News › 2021 › Sept. › Hull KR squad named (catalansdragons.com) Likewise Les Dracs have Sam Tomkins in the named 21, but whether he gets on the filed is, I suppose, another matter. Dragons Catalans › News › 2021 › Sept. › The squad for the Semi-Final (catalansdragons.com)

BBC says Saturday.

...sorry, that should have been 'Jim Lad'!

aye, aye, Jam Lid

The Scottish Cup final takes place this Saturday in Oban. BBC Alba will have live coverage from 2pm, with commentary, as far as I know, in English, not Gaelic. The throw-up (start of the game) is at 2.10pm. The two teams are Lovat and Kinlochshiel. The former come from a village west of Inverness, the latter from near Kyle of Lochalsh. Looking back through the finals scores, since the first one in 1896, as far as I can see, this will be Kinlochshiel's first ever final. Lovat lost in 1925, then won, after a drawn first final, in 1953. They then had to wait until 2015 for their next appearance, when they won in Oban (a game I was at). Since then, they have lost in the final twice, in 2017 and 2018. After that Oban game in 2015, my friend and I were travelling back on an evening train to Glasgow. We fell into conversation with a bemused and disappointed supporter of Kyles Athletic, the Tighnabruaich-based club who had just lost to Lovat, 1-2. "Typical Lovat", he said, "You play them off the park and then realise they have just beaten you by the odd goal!"

Newcastle -v- TOXIII is apparently free to view on OuRLeague.

Les Dracs' Jason Baitieri and James Maloney are both retiring from SL; both have signed for FC Lezignan XIII in Elite 1.

When I was a regional director for English Heritage, when we advertised historic building inspector vacancies in my team, applicants had to sign a form saying that they were not afraid of heights. When, more recently I worked for the Diocese of Bath & Wells, I found that I could quite easily lean over a church tower parapet and have a conversation with somebody on the ground - not that I had to do that every week! As a slight aside from the main theme, thanks to the OP for using 'phobia' as I understand it, namely a fear of something. When did it become hijacked to mean hating something, as in 'transphobia' and 'homophobia'?

Skippy the bush kangaroo was apparently born Skipinder, and comes from the Punjab. I do not know when or under what circumstances he emigrated.

No, I won't be there. To be honest, I think it is just a glorified p***-up. The fans get exploited for what is little more than a loop fixture, and I don't see why my team, the Dragons, have such a tough fixture (ie v. Saints). I think it's all an RFL conspiracy to help Rhinos finish in a play-off berth. Oh, hang on... More seriously, I will be off to Lyme Regis on holiday, so have set the TV to record, but may well not watch them all. I cannot go a whole week without knowing the scores and do not want to, so on return will maybe watch a small selection, including Catalans -v- Saints...if Les Dracs win!

Have you got a web link for Busty Babes, HG? I'm just asking for a friend - well, obviously...!

Very enjoyable, so thanks for the posting, POR. However, the PTB technique was terrible. The defending players, having completed the tackle, got up promptly without nudging or bumping their opponent, while the attacking player wasted critical trillionths of seconds by not moving forward, instead just placing the ball firmly on the ground and heeling it back with the foot. What was all that about? It'll never catch on in SL!

Can you get it via the BBC RL web page? That's what I am doing at home in (not so) sunny Wiltshire.

You don't have to listen on Radio Humberside, johnh1. It's On Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, with commentary by Dave Woods.

Mrs WWD and I had our daughter back for a long weekend the other week, and went for our usual morning dog walk in the New Forest, at Turf Hill; it's the nearest car park to us and only a five-minute drive. We were reminded of one of the most unobtrusive features of the forest's animal life as we walked along a gravel track which had warmed up nicely in the early morning sun. Mrs WWD, Miss WWD and Poppy, our Catalan sheepdog (is there any other dog breed for a fan of Les Dracs? But I digress!), had happened to be on the left hand side of the path and a few steps ahead of me. I was on the right hand side and almost stepped on a wooden stick...except it wasn't! It was an adder taking advantage of the agreeable weather to get a bit of warmth in its body. The others hadn't even noticed it. They all came back to look from a distance of about a couple of feet; the adder just lay there. Snakes, I fear, can have a poor reputation, with many people possibly imagining that they will attack you on sight. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the years, in the New Forest, Mrs WWD and I have seen adders and grass snakes a few times and were once lucky enough to find a very rare smooth snake sunning itself on a pathway. We've also seen a few lizards and slow worms. What they all had in common was absolutely no inclination to be aggressive. They stayed still or just gently slipped away.