Neil_Ormston

I come with further bad news: I'm afraid The Unofficial Programme has gone the same way of the official one! Despite my best efforts to squeeze this into an already very full diary, I've reluctantly decided to stop producing this. Distribution was very limited, and with holidays coming up I feared I would be doing a half-arsed job on this and I'd rather do nothing than something sub-standard. Thanks to those that supported this whilst I did it; hopefully people found it enjoyable while it lasted

A question, and an offer... Firstly, does anyone know how to source Leigh programmes? I'm looking for one from the Wire game, but have so far had no joy; any help appreciated. Secondly, I am producing 'The Unofficial Programme' again for Warrington this year, as I did when the club didn't produce in 2021. It's unashamedly a rip-off of the style of the pre-WW2 Warrington 'official programme', a 4 page foldover intended to be self-printed, which is available for free to anyone that wants it, either for specific games, or the entire season. Just drop me an email at neil.ormston@gmail.com & I can email you back. @Hopping Mad feel free to add any of this info to the season summary too.

Officially confirmed, and my offer to do the content for them rejected. So that's it. 105 years of traditional killed dead, obviously never to return. I'm not sure I have the heart (or time) to keep 'The Unofficial Programme' going this time

Seeing as we're using this for 2025, I'm going to start with sad news. It seems Warrington are ending 105 years of tradition, and will no longer be produced a programme (of any sort) - their excuse is the sales / downloads of the electronic version does not warrant the effort, and they will instead invest the resource in producing more online articles for their website. I've raised by objections in the strongest terms, and have again offered to produce 'The Unofficial Programme' as I did in 2021 when in the post-Covid season they didn't produce anything. I've asked them to consider whether they would support to make it 'official' - I would produce all the content, they would just need to promote it, either with a link of their website for people to download, or by printing a few hundred copies off in the office on the day of the game and sticking them out in the ground. I'm not holding my breath... I'll post back later if and when I know more, and with details of anyone who wants to be adding to the distribution list if I do start this up again.

I got sorted in the end, thanks

Have Leigh definitely done programmes this year? Nothing on Match Day Creative website (they have all 2023 still), and I can't find anything on eBay or anyone else online. Any help appreciated, as I'm doing my end of season(-ish) catch-up now

I found this thread whilst doing some work for the Record Keepers' Club on the international games this season. I thought this would be of interest: https://www.intrl.sport/news/why-sims-not-tests/ Well worth reading the full piece, as it's not too long, but in short, IRL's official term for a match played for world rankings points is "Recognised Senior International Match". At the RKC we use the shorthand "Full International" for this, as it's more commonly used and has historical relevance. The RKC worked with IRL in provided the summary linked above, and was part of IRL's History & Heritage Group who compiled the historic list of Full Internationals, which are used as IRL's official records; the RKC has also aligned to this list for all the international stats on our website. HTH.

For the avoidance of any doubt, the Huddersfield-Swinton Park score was 119-2. This is now corrected on the RKC website - apologies for the error here, and thanks to those that raised it on here. Whilst every league score on the website has been validated, there could be the odd typo on cup matches, which are a little bit harder to validate en masse. https://stats.rugbyleaguerecords.com/matchdetails.php?tselect=106617 Huddersfield scored 27 three-point tries & 19 two-point goals.

I’ve run some scenarios and by my reckoning Hull will be a grade B club in the final gradings unless they can either improve their on-field performances (they need to finish above Leigh and Cas at least), or secure c0.1 points elsewhere (I’ve not seen their detailed split, so don’t know how likely that is). So it might be that we only have 6 A grade clubs next year.

I used the methodology provided in response to a query in August about how ties are treated. Salford’s disclosure suggests either 1) I misinterpreted, 2) the info was wrong, 3) something has changed. I’m seeking confirmation, but it seems likely that it is as you suggest. Either method is valid, though I’d argue splitting the points for 2nd and 3rd is better (otherwise you’re increasing the total number of points awarded, and there’s an easy solution to avoid that). But I’m not really that bothered, other than it being my clear what the right method is. I’ll revert as and when (if) I get confirmation btw, I haven’t seen Wigan, Catalans or Wire publicly share anything; if anyone has, could you ping a link please, as this will help corroborate what Salford have shared? TIA

I have queried this, as my calcs were done based on the official explanation I was given. Salford and Wire are actually level on placings, and as I covered above, my understanding was this meant they would share the points for 6th and 7th; Salford seem to have been awarded the points for 6th, whilst Wire haven’t declared there’s publicly yet. Regardless, it’s not immediately obvious why this is the case, but as soon as I find out, I’ll share

Yes, I’ve just seen. Thanks @Spidey.

As per my response: posted by @RL_RKC, RT by me (search Neil Ormston, you should find it easily!) edit: someone posted on the previous page. Sorry, I’m playing catch up

Your edit is right re how it works. 3 season average position calculated; teams ranked in order. 1st get 4, 2nd gets 3.89, down to 35th getting 0.11. Of two teams are tied they share the points. So for example, Wigan and Catalans both average 3.33 over the past 3 seasons, they both therefore get 3.83, being the average of what 2nd and 3rd should get. Simples

I’m having some tech issues, but do have a bad photo of the list (league derived only, awaiting final ratification that I’ve done it right (!), and with a technical query of no consequence on Cornwall). Hopefully it’ll be attached here. If not, it’s posted on Twitter by RL_RKC, and I’ve retweeted it in my own name edit: it’s too big to attach here, so check Twitter out!