wilsontown

The Hummel England stuff was pretty terrible as it goes, which is odd because their GB stuff was OK and some of their club RL gear has been really decent.

Laughed my head off when I saw this e-mail this morning. At this rate everyone in the squad will be able to wear a different shirt for training.

Exactly.

I think the point is that the semi-finals are never going to be a big event for neutral fans, so trying to make it into that was doomed to failure from the start.

Could have played the game at the LNER in York and bigged up that the women's World Cup semi-finals will also be played there.

Don't joke. Even we shouldn't be incompetent enough to get relegated from National League North, though, and we'd still need a few more divisions before we'd get to the Rail... On the stadium, 8.5k would likely be enough even if City made it to League 1, which is realistically not happening in the next few years if ever.

No, because I watch City and the chances of them rising up through the leagues are slim. In seriousness, I don't have much in the way of worries on that score. Even if City make it into the football league, I don't see how they would be able to cause the Knights any significant problems even if they wanted to (and why would they?). The Knights are tenants of the council so it isn't as though City could turf them out. As far as I know there are agreements in place over how much each club gets to use the facilities (including for a limited number of non-match days). What I'd like to see is the two clubs actually working together with joint season tickets and promotions, but as yet there's no sign of that happening. I doubt that is down to the Knights, but I don't claim to be in the know.

It's a similar situation at York, the SMC is run by the football club.

The football club don't own the stadium, it is owned by York City Council.

Can't do right for doing wrong, the poor lad.

I had no idea it was here, so a nice surprise. The actual trophies (well, presumably replicas?) were there as well. Good stuff as of course we have some games at that fancy new stadium you may have heard of.

The Rugby League World Cup in ice sculpture form at York over the weekend... https://yorkmix.com/pictures-they-are-so-cool-sculptures-revealed-as-york-ice-trail-gets-underway/

What is this witchcraft?

Just to mention that said model shop is very much still going and also sponsors York City Knights.

Yep, I keep saying this but York is the heartlands - there are community clubs in Acorn, Heworth and New Earswick and right now we have a relatively successful semi-pro side. The Knights and their predecessors have not always been as successful as they are now but the game here is strong.

I'm sure you're right, but what's going to happen? Are they going to get sued by British Coal?

I remember being in Cornwall on holiday and my mum saying "come and look at this". Was an adder curled up and getting warm in the sunshine. It was me that identified it, that zig-zag pattern is distinctive. Eventually got fed up of us and slid off into the undergrowth. You are highly unlikely to have any issue with an adder unless you're being an idiot and poking it with a stick or something.

Aaron Bower in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2021/aug/09/world-cup-postponement-adds-to-uncertainty-over-rugby-leagues-future Not sure how he concludes that the world cup will happen in 2022 "come what may", but hopefully he knows something I don't.

Have a look at the last 63 pages of this thread and see what you reckon.

Should the Pacific island nations pull out (and I really hope they don't), we should invite whoever was next in the qualifiers to play. I'd get behind it.

This tournament needs to be on, by hook or by crook. If the actions of Australia and New Zealand lead to the world cup being cancelled, it should be seen as the worst crime against this game since the Vichy government abolished rugby league and gave the game's assets to union.

The Guardian today giving more coverage of RL than I've seen for years. Well done everyone.

Could we be looking at 1895 v 2.0? Maybe the northern hemisphere needs to go its own way. Not something I would have advocated yesterday but here we are.

Nice. I'm a geologist and used to run a field trip where we did an exercise along the banks of the Corinth Canal. In some of those images you can see some geological faults which we got the participants to map on each side of the canal. Then we had a quick boat trip through the canal and back. I miss doing that trip but I'd be surprised if I get to run it again.

Is it just me or are there zillions of goldfinches everywhere you go at the moment? I don't have a problem with them or anything, in fact they are rather cheering, but I don't remember them being so common in previous years.