Wiltshire Warrior Dragon
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Posts posted by Wiltshire Warrior Dragon
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2 hours ago, Rene_Artois said:
Just had a look myself. About 900 tickets left in the sections open. If that's right it'll be about 3000 sold already. Hope I'm reading it right cos it'll be a hell of an atmosphere.
I can give you one example of the sort of interest in this game, Rene A. My mate from Norton (just north of Donny) hasn't attended an RL match since he and I went to Wembley to see my team, Les Dracs, beat the Wire in 2018. However, earlier this week, chatting on the phone, he said that he was going on Sunday and taking his daughter and her two small boys along too. I hope they manage to get in!
Clearly this is catching the local imagination.
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2 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:
A scrum after every tackle.
That were proper rugby.
Game's gone.
Quite right, Mark, m'lad.
Rot set in when they started giving points for a try!
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14 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:
Anyone else noticed that for pretty much the whole season the viaplay tackle count seems to be almost random?
Decent game that and was torn between wanting Batley to win tonight and Bradford to lose on the final day to miss out on the playoffs or Batley losing tonight and now hoping Bradford win so as long as we win then we would face them in the first round of the playoffs.
I wouldn't quite say 'random', Blue Ox, but I know what you mean. It is usually one tackle behind, sometimes two, but I don't recall it ever getting ahead except when they missed a 'set restart'. At least Mark Wilson, as commentator, keeps up with things and often mentions the point reached in the tackle count, possibly because he knows how unreliable the indication on screen is.
I find that Wilson commentates a bit like a radio commentator in that he often describes in detail what we can see for ourselves, yet - and I am not quite sure why! - I don't find his style irritating.
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6 hours ago, gingerjon said:
To be fair, rugby league is about the only sport I can think of where a knowledge of its foundation, the reasons for it, and the dates and locations involved are deemed essential contemporary knowledge.
Point taken, GJ, though GAA is arguably another case in point. I suppose what I was trying to demonstrate was that there are people who think they know about something, but actually harbour sketchy or even inaccurate knowledge.
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1 hour ago, Futtocks said:
The amateur clubs were always a good example to show Rugby Union fans (during the shamateur era) that the code war wasn't just greedy professionals versus saintly Corinthians.
Seriously, I used to work with a woman who refused to believe that there was such a thing as a Rugby League player who hadn't originally been a Union player. In her eyes, they were all converts, corrupted by filthy Northern lucre. I wouldn't remotely characterise her as stupid either, but she had bought into an assumption that was not uncommon at the time.
Extremely well put, Futtocks, for which many thanks. I have come across union devotees who assume that the breakaway of 1895 (of which they are vaguely aware but almost certainly couldn't state the actual year of it) was about all players becoming not only paid, but also full-time rugby professionals. When I point out that in the first few seasons of Northern Union, its players had to fill in a form indicating their main source of income (which couldn't be the NU rugby club), they are amazed. Clearly, for such union devotees, the concept of broken time payments (and what that actually means) has totally passed them by.
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4 hours ago, crashmon said:
Interesting fixtures... Am hoping London do not understimate Widnes, I have a bad feeling the vikings will nick this
In other news, am also expecting this to turn into a 10 page thread about a fev fan farting on a Newcastle fan, after the game on Friday, so we get to discuss fev fans on the road again in this thread rather than actual results in the gamesSo 'breaking wind news' rather than just 'breaking news'.
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5 hours ago, Ullman said:
They're not slow either. They can cover the ground remarkably quickly.
Good point! I wonder who came up with the common name and why.
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For me it is as follows:
Sports I watch and follow
- Rugby League - obviously! Introduced to it in the 1960s with a family move from rural Gloucestershire; became a frequent attendee at Hilton and Central Parks. Interest reawakened by Sky Sports (to give credit where it is due!)
- Ice hockey - I first got attracted by the contrast of speed and elegance with brutality about 60 years ago. When it was, for me, practical to do so (1968-74/88-95) , I watched Durham Wasps live; sadly they are no more. Down at my end of the country I have often watched Basingstoke Bison's home games.
- GAA (primarily hurling) - I first saw this on BBC2 in the mid-60s and was hooked. As OnStrike says, hurling is 'the game of the Gods' when at its best. I knocked about with the Irish lads in Bristol in the late 60s and took the lead in setting up a very early (for Britain) minor grade (U-18) gaelic football team which I was young enough to play for. In those days, the 'Gloucestershire' county board of the GAA embraced clubs from Cardiff, Newport, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Swindon and Salisbury.
- Shinty - I've done various things in this sport including take a six-a-side team from Northallerton to St Andrews University five years in a row for their sixes tournament, and co-edit 'The Shinty Yearbook'. Old habits die hard and I still check the scores online and watch the few live matches there are on BBC Scotland or BBC Alba.
Sports I watch but not follow closely
- Cricket - bits here and there, and I check the county scores for county championship and 50-overs-a-side games; shorter versions leave me cold, I'm afraid, unless it is at local clubs and works team level.
Sports I have watched live but do not watch
- Rugby union - used to watch a lot (and play a bit) about forty or more years ago, but nowadays find it is (a) a sport that is hard to follow if you don't know the rules any more (and boy, how they have changed in that time, often, of course, by adopting rugby league practice) and (b) it is too stop-start. A year or two ago, I experimented sometimes when I was watching something on Sky Sports and knew there was a union game being shown live on another channel. I kept randomly flicking across to the union and was not surprised to discover that the ball was not in play more than 50% of the times I did so!
- Soccer - first 'big' sporting event I ever attended live was on a family holiday back to Aberdeen, when my aunt and uncle took me to see Aberdeen play Hibs in the final of the short-lived Scottish Summer Cup. In my late teens for a few years, I watched Bristol City at Ashton Gate quite often.
Sports I play
- Table tennis - at the modest level of Salisbury & District TT League Division 2 (and, yes, as you ask, there are only two divisions!) and earlier in life in the lower divisions of first the Northallerton and later the Keighley leagues.
Hawkman wrote this:
"Hate is a strong word, I don't hate any sports and can't understand people who use such language, but sports I'll never watch, again, after trying to once.
American football, a total mess, stop start stop start, I might get into it if I had my brain removed and replaced by a clockwork mouse.
Basketball, up and down the court , in the hoop, repeats 200 times a game,yawn.
Athletics, some people can run faster than others and hurl things further, so what?"
I could have pretty much written that verbatim, but would add to it most motor racing and horse racing; things going round and round on a predetermined course just don't do it for me - still, each to their own.
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4 hours ago, PEANUT HEAD said:
Don't talk .
One of the Beach Boys' best, PH, which your post has prompted me to revisit on YouTube, for which many thanks!
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2 hours ago, Ullman said:
I like your thinking.
Maybe it'll be like snooker and the referee will have to place the ball and all the players in exactly the same locations on the field.
I think that is probably the sort of thing that will happen. Leigh were on the Giants' 20 metres line and it should be possible to reposition the ball the suitable number of yards in from touch. To be pedantic, I think I heard somebody on Sky yesterday (possibly Jenna) say that there were 31 minutes and 58 seconds left to play.
I like the humour of the touch judge who, when the lights went out, said to the ref that a try had just been scored!
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1 hour ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:
First toad seen in the garden for a couple of years hiding under a bag of wood chippings. Called Mrs S but it had hopped off before she arrived.
Also shopping took longer than planned today as the rambling rose in front of where we'd parked was filled with a dozen or so long tailed titmice flitting about its branches so we had to sit and admire them for some time.
I think it is hard to imagine anything more uplifting (especially if you are feeling a bit down in the dumps) than to watch a long-tailed titmice group foraging and flitting about. Great sighting, LTS.
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This morning's dog walk in the New Forest threw up an interesting sighting, but only when we returned to the car, which was parked in a gravel surfaced lay-by. I realised that just underneath the car (but in direct line of where the tyres would go when I moved off) was a slow worm, about six inches long, so I presume a this year's baby. I eventually managed to move it away with the help of a twig and it seemed to make the sensible decision to head away from the road.
I suspect that slow worms are an example of a wildlife species that isn't that rare and yet which you only see very occasionally, and then, sadly, possibly in squashed form in the middle of the road.
Slow worms are not worms and are also not snakes, despite looking a bit like them. I believe they are, technically, legless lizards (a few of a different sort of which can, no doubt, be seen on a Friday or Saturday night in a town or city near you!!)
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Each Saturday edition of "The Times" has a sports section, within which is a 'Big Interview'. This week, this two-page (tabloid page size) feature is an interview with Keegan Hirst. I haven't read it yet, but thought I would post this now in case anybody who doesn't normally read this paper thought it was worth buying while they were out shopping this morning (to allude to an old fashioned way of acquiring and reading newspapers!)
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7 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:
Know a bloke who relocated recently to Scarborough from Oswestry. Speaks very highly of the latter. Probably too far north for us, however.
One of my wife's colleagues moved from Sussex to Bishops Castle. I suspect he likes its isolation more than his young daughters!
This is intriguingly ambiguous, HM.....!
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3 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:
Cornwall have done Rochdale 18-12. Fantastic win.
"Pur dha!" to the Choughs.
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I know this is slightly off topic, but this seems as good a place as any to point this out.
It was five years ago today that Les Dracs won the challenge cup at Wembley, beating the Wolves 20-14. I was lucky enough to be there with my mate, Dave from Doncaster. I was reminded of this when reading the wording on the polo shirt that Catalans subsequently produced to mark the occasion! (Being a bloke and an Aberdonian, I see nothing wrong in wearing clothing that is about five years old!)
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1 hour ago, sam4731 said:
Find?
I'm an avid follower of Ugandan ice hockey. It's almost as good as Bolivian chessboxing.
Careful, sam4731. You might get reported to the mods for wanting to 'discuss Uganda'...even if only from an ice hockey point of view!
"Private Eye" readers will understand my point!
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31 minutes ago, Father Ted said:
Wigan will have to beat the weather as well as the Dragons to get the two points here. Can be done but very difficult.
Nah...the met Office say a chilly 25 or 26 degrees C by Saturday afternoon, as south of France temperatures plummet!
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I always like Ludlow and Church Stretton; maybe worth a look if your domestic commitments allow you to consider relocating to the southern end of the county. Nowadays, both are bypassed by the modern A49, which helps. Ludlow is big enough to appear to have a reasonable range of services, shops and other facilities. Church Stretton maybe has more of a large village feel. The hills of the Long Mynd behind it are very impressive.
Unlike Leigh, both these places have direct rail access, to the south to Cardiff and, in the other direction, Manchester (or Manceinion, as the bilingual train announcements have it at the Welsh stations on the line.)
The poet AE Houseman (himself a native of Worcestershire!), in his most famous work, "A Shropshire Lad", enthused about the villages in the Clun Valley - 'Clunton and Clungbury, Clungunford and Clun, are the quietest places under the sun'. Mind you, he did write it in the first decade of the 20th century, so they might be a wee bit busier nowadays!
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1 hour ago, JohnM said:
He went down with Alice, which is I assume, some sort of contagious disease.
Brilliant - how could I walk into that?!
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1 hour ago, JohnM said:
Untill Christopher became ill. I assume you knew about that?
I knew there was some father-son tension at times, but not about any illness. What happened?
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102 years ago today, Mr and Mrs Milne gave their son, Christopher Robin, a toy teddy bear for his first birthday. The rest, as they say, is literary history.
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On 19/08/2023 at 20:01, hindle xiii said:
Buy many Bakewell Puddings, that is all.
Thanks for not saying 'Bakewell tarts'!
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3 hours ago, Hemel Rugby League said:
The grandstand is temporarily closed for safety reasons. The wooden decking that came with it when it was purchased from the 2012 Olympics is rotten and needs to be replaced with either metal or plastic decking. The club is awaiting quotes for the work to be done. Cost is likely to be tens of thousands. The grandstand was last used in July for the LJL Grand Finals
When the time comes to fundraise, don't overlook the content of the thread 'Sport England Small Grants programme' helpfully started fairly recently on here by Futtocks.
BBCi player
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
So do I.