Billy King's Boots

Unless they've pimped the ground out to a couple of pub teams... https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2022/april/pitchhirebookings_2022/

I played to a decent level until my late teens when I got an injury so severe that the club doctor said that my choice was to go back and try to play or walk with a stick when I was 30. So I stopped. Played a bit of social RL in my 20s, then played tag in my 40s (got a few knocks there) and picked another injury playing tag when I was 50 (that still niggles now), and that put the lid on it. Do I miss it? Yes. The buzz of the dressing room, feeling part of a team - and, let's face it, it's an exhilarating game to play. Now 58 and seriously considering walking rugby. Couldn't possibly get injured playing that. Could I? But take people's point that, as it was never my job, I never got disillusioned by it - so maybe I have a rose-tinted view? Still obsessed with the game though. Love it.

Hornets completed their first set of six in the 23rd minute. Worst first quarter for a very long time. Discipline also awful. Yes, we got close after chasing the game down TWICE, but errors and penalties killed us in the end. Must do better.

Same source!

'Soccer' has been with us since the 1880s. And its origins are British. It's a colloquialism to distinguish association football from the other codes of football played at the time. Its use to distinguish the game from 'American Football' (or just 'football') in the US has, as the game has grown there and we have become increasingly exposed to/influenced by US culture, has led it to feel like an American construction (especially when pronounced as 'sacker'). But it's as legitimate a name for football as 'football'.

He's hugely talented, but lazy. Plays when he wants and goes missing for long periods. He's an expensive ornament.

Istan-ball anyone? I'll get me coat...

We didn't.

John Cookson is your man

Spotland has a hybrid system. 50% grass - 50% sand On a related note, back in the normal-times I played a bit of masters. We used to train in a sports hall and play on grass. We switched to training on artificial grass with the rubber crumb in it - within a month six of us were out with knee problems.

Yesterday's subs were: Connor Aspey Luke Fowden Rhys Davies Aiden Roden The BBC Website is wrong.

688 Down a bit on last season's league average. Hurricanes brought about 60 - mostly players' friends and family. The red card was hugely over zealous - we call Jo Taira (that's 'Tie-era' everyone) the Suva Express because being hit by him is like being hit by a train. Seems today's 13-year old referee was quite taken aback by the impact of the hit. Hurricanes only scored points when Hornets were playing with 12 men. (one yellow/one red card) Hornets had no Rangi Chase, no FuiFui, No Gavin Bennion - plenty of young lads/fringe players/local lads given a run. Hornets in the hat for Round 3. Nice.

Rochdale Hornets. You're welcome.

Yerah - we play them bank holiday weekend. Expect travel carnage.

In the 'Any Other Business' forum, I'd say: b u g g e r all!

The options on the table at the initial meeting to form the club were were Grasshoppers, Wasps, Butterflies and Hornets. I think they made the right decision.

TBF Rochdale Hornets have been Rochdale Hornets since 1871. It was hardly a 'come-lately' bolt-on.

They are, but it gives you an indication of what's possible - how long it takes and how much it costs to achieve modest success. Redruth drawing 900 is a more realistic comparison - but, again, a well established team playing other South West sides, so there's a derby element to games.

Cornish Pirates invest £1,140,000 a year and attract 0.3% of the Cornish population (1,700). That's the equivalent of Oldham or Rochdale Hornets attracting a crowd of 750 (0.3% of their town's populations). Cornwall RL are going to have to promote very hard to pull in good crowds - but the interview with Rob Butland dodges the question on what good looks like.

Fair point - it's a while since I last went.

Interestingly, the entire population of Cornwall is about 500,000!

The bit in the interview about distances from 'Rochdale to Cornwall' is, I think, willfully disingenuous. If you're travelling from Rochdale, Bristol is pretty much half-way - but it's mostly motorway to Bristol. After that it's the South West's gridlocked summer A roads. And the Newcastle to London example is also a misdirection. In this case, Ealing is 70 miles fewer - and the vast majority is on faster roads, so it's almost two hours quicker. (timings below). We've done Skolars lots of times by train - dead easy. But it takes 2 hours 5 minutes to go from Newquay to Penryn by train - the same as Manchester to Euston! Will I go? Yeah, probably. But people deserve a fair comparison. Rochdale to Penryn 6 hr 45 min (353.1 mi) Rochdale to Bristol 3 hr 34 min (184.8 mi) Bristol to Penryn 3 hr 20 min (176.0 mi) Newcastle to Ealing 4 hr 54 min (281.0 mi)

There aren't actually all that many Union fans either. Cornish Pirates owner puts in £1million a year and they get £140,000 from the RFU. Their average attendance is 1,700. Redruth have had the biggest attendance in RFU's tier 4 this season - 950. At tier 7 where Penryn play, there are grounds with capacities of 500. If you want a comparison with football, Truro City (owned by the Cornish Pirates) are the highest ranked football club in Cornwall. They average about 150. They had one attendance of 102 this season. It just doesn't feel like a sporting hotbed.

TBF, Rochdale Hornets also have a women's team, a wheelchair team, community coaching/development though the Hornets Sporting Foundation and a Cat.3 Academy at Hopwood Hall College.

Precisely this. Comparing Rugby League's third tier with 'what professional football does' is a misdirection. For starters, clubs in football's third tier are full time. Doncaster Rovers receive just over £1.3 million pounds in Sky 'solidarity payments. Outside the 'giants' of Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and Bolton who all pull in big crowds - third tier clubs have an average attendance of around 6,500. League two clubs don't offer much more of a comparison. Again: full time, in 2019/20 Rochdale received a total of £1,220,000 of Premier League Funding. The average attendance in football's fourth tier is around the 4,000 mark. For a more accurate view, you have to look at football clubs similar in status and support to a League 1 Rugby League Club. For that you have to look down as far as football's Tier Six - for example Curzon Ashton (Tameside) and Bradford Park Avenue (W.Yorkshire). Both 'Northern' and semi-professional, they average crowds of 450 and 500 respectively - and they play in the regionalised National League North. Regionalised to help reduce the logistics and cost impacts on clubs with limited resources.