bowes
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Posts posted by bowes
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30 minutes ago, Marauder said:
Wasn't it the county cup winners
It was once the County Cups started in 1973, but they had qualifying rounds before then.
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On 13/11/2021 at 18:40, gingerjon said:
It seems that a selling point to be a korfball player in England would be that as it's a minority sport in every country it's played that not only international honours, but actual medals, could be forthcoming. I see that England finished fourth in the most recent Euros for example.
It's a good comparison in terms of numbers. Looking at the maps and clubs, I'd say they're pretty close but I suspect you're right that korfball has more.
Anyway, I don't much care, as Dunkerque fluked past Nancy last night and I was very happy as a result.
I played korfball, I ended up playing for my university (Birmingham) in the national championships, though we did finish last.
From memory the sport has a relatively strong set up in London and Kent but in the rest of the country it's distribution is very varied. If there's a local university playing then you'll get a local league that is a mixture of university sides plus local clubs set up by graduates from the university. If there isn't a local university playing then there's usually no teams at all.
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11 hours ago, Anita Bath said:
i think it was the champions of the lancashire cup and the yorkshire cup , not the ones the semi pros played for but the amateur versions. Cumbrian team,s played in the lancs competition i think.
i recall mayfield getting so close several times and then finally made it (1975 maybe) where they ran the then New Hunslet very close.
Cumbrian clubs played in the Lancashire Cup to begin with but later got their own county cup.
In 1982 according to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BARLA_Cumbria_Cup
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1 hour ago, gingerjon said:
Going by Wikipedia - so not a perfect science - it looks like it was limited to a small number of qualifiers to get up to 32 teams well before the First World War, having been more 'open' in the very early years.
Apparently before BARLA formed in the 1970s they had regional qualifying rounds to reduce the number of amateur clubs to two. I don't know any more details than that, I just remember being told it by one of the older posters on here once.
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On 11/11/2021 at 13:41, gingerjon said:
Yes. This has to be pointed out every year. It was a handful, at most, for most years until the 1990s.
Yes, either 2 or 4 amateur clubs depending on when you defined the Challenge Cup as starting. The winners of four county cups (Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria and London) all played a preliminary round and the two winners of that round entered the challenge cup main draw with the professional sides.
There was a Trophy as well which had the professional teams and the two finalists of the BARLA National Cup in (though in the later seasons it also had NCL premier division teams and French teams).
The expansion of the Challenge Cup to include more amateur sides was part of the peace deal between the RFL and BARLA in 1993 (when the National Conference League was founded, though there had been a BARLA National League before then).
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15 hours ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:
Does this mean that the team is relocating then? One poster mentioned Birmingham earlier, but I wasn't sure if I'd misunderstood his post or not.
I'd guess it would be to a smaller town if the club are moving, as you'd want to call a Birmingham based club Birmingham.
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Is the Midlands League going back to being a proper league next season? It was a merit league this year, but I don't know if it that was just because of Coronavirus.
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4 hours ago, Rach said:
Still a few of those locations have teams if not the original clubs on the list
Bedford Tigers .Worcester Jaguars Chester Gladiators And the All Golds
If you add those to the list its probably well over 2/3rds that are still playing rugby league in some form which I dont think is bad at all
Bedford Tigers and NEW Ravens were set up not long after Bedford Swifts and Worcestershire Saints respectively folded so I expect there was some continuity of players and volunteers. Chester Gladiators have nothing to do with Chester Wolves but they are a much better club. The problem with clubs like Chester Wolves or Crewe Wolves was that they'd often bring in winter players from the heartlands rather than develop local players.
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On 23/10/2021 at 12:56, Rowan said:
Just as a bit of light relief I dug out a match day programme of Manchester Knights from July 20, 2000. It was for an RL Conference Match (eventually to become National League Three) against Rotherham Giants. At the time Birmingham Bulldogs with 10 wins from 11 games were top of the Western Division and the Composite Table. The Competition also included Hemel, St. Albans, Ipswich, Coventry, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Chester, Nottingham, Derby, North, South and West London, St. Albans - a total of 24 clubs in all. Don't know how many (if any other than Hemel and Coventry still exist but it was backed by the RFL at the time.
Northern Division:
Manchester Knights- no longer exist
Crewe Wolves- no longer exist
Chester Wolves- no longer exist
Rotherham Giants- no longer exist
Derby City- still exist
Nottingham Outlaws- still exist
Western Division:
Birmingham Bulldogs- still exist
Coventry Bears- still exist
Gloucestershire Warriors- no longer exist
Leicester Phoenix- no longer exist
Worcestershire Saints- no longer exist
Wolverhampton Wizards- no longer exist
Eastern Division:
Bedford Swifts- no longer exist
Cambridge Eagles- no longer exist
Hemel Stags- still exist
Ipswich Rhinos- still exist but are now called Eastern Rhinos
South Norfolk Saints- no longer exist
St Albans Centurions- still exist
Southern Division:
Crawley Jets- no longer exist
Kingston Warriors- still exist but are now called Elmbridge Eagles
North London Skolars- still exist but are now called London Skolars
Oxford Cavaliers- still exist
South London Storm- merged with West London Sharks to form London Chargers
West London Sharks- merged with South London Storm to form London Chargers
10 out of the 24 still exist and 2 of the others have merged to form a still existing club.
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20 hours ago, Robthegasman said:
What exactly did Keighley propose?
They wanted to send Coventry Bears, London Skolars and West Wales Raiders back in time 10 years to play in the Rugby League Conference
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1 hour ago, Spidey said:
One example in the 10,000's of sporting leagues in the world definitely makes it obscure, and nobody has named exactly where this example is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Argentine_Primera_División#Relegation
It's in that totally obscure footballing nation called Argentina
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10 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:
I've heard this suggestion before and I'm sorry it just won't work. There is just not the clubs to make it work. Hemel are happy where they are, All Golds talk a good game but didn't even finish their season this year, Oxford no longer exist, and South Wales no longer exist. Its pointless even thinking about it until the Southern conference manages to grow further and clubs finish a full season.
The Eastern Division of the CLS looks like a reasonably decent league (not a high enough standard for Coventry, but a worthwhile league in its own right), though the top three teams are a lot stronger than the others.
I'd be surprised if the Western Division can carry on (despite strong commitment by Swindon St George and Devon Sharks) as it is down to four teams and two of them forfeited multiple matches.
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Chorley did quite well after dropping into the NCL and got elected back into the league after a couple of seasons. Nottingham and Blackpool ended up struggling really badly though.
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On 12/09/2021 at 15:56, Spidey said:
Coventry amateurs have been offered a place in NW before - not sure why they didn’t enter in the end
I think this was Coventry Dragons. I remember they ended up joining the London Premier Division instead but then folded rather than playing the season. I can't remember why they suddenly folded though (they were a strong side up until that point). Northampton Demons suddenly collapsed at the same time, they were the strongest amateur clubs in the midlands (after Nottingham) so it was a shock, especially as Leicester Storm had folded not long before.
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On 09/09/2021 at 14:44, Saint 1 said:
I don't think that funding cuts would have to mean rugby league wouldn't exist in Coventry, as much as it wouldn't exist at a semi-professional level. Coventry was a pretty strong amateur club before they entered League 1 in 2015 and also had a decent junior set up covering lots of age groups.
It does a disservice to Coventry's past volunteers and indeed amateur clubs nationally to act like this is a binary choice between having RL in Coventry and not having RL in Coventry. They just wouldn't be paying players.
Unless they could get into the National Conference League there wouldn't be much of a local amateur game to play in for them, the midlands league is just a merit league now and the Conference League South doesn't have any midlands teams in it.
Nottingham Outlaws are a good amateur side, but it does help that they're close enough to Yorkshire to play in a Yorkshire based league.
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15 hours ago, del capo said:
I read it that way as well.
It seems that the top 20 will share the pot more evenly than as now.
League 1 ( still Tier 3 ) is likely to get nothing. But they've known about that for at least 2 years and have hopefully been planning their futures.
16 clubs will have to rely on their own resources to fund a 34 game league season ( unless they adopt a ladder system ) pay wages where they can and travel the length of the country. Tough ask for some.
The Community game has thus far not been consulted on helping out despite those comments about a 'whole game approach '.
The NCL club requirements are alien to and frankly beyond most of Tier 3. However I expect that the Southern Conference like the NCL also Tier 4 but crucially owned by the RFL and more in tune with those League 1 clubs likely to struggle, could accommodate.....and become stronger for it.
My glass is still just about half full rather than half empty......
I'm not sure the Southern Conference in its current form would be suitable for teams dropping out of League 1, except possibly West Wales Raiders.
It's a couple of regional leagues that don't cover every part of the country south of Sheffield. Much more like the old RLC Premier Division than the old National League 3. The best two midlands amateur clubs play in the Yorkshire Men's League instead.
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22 hours ago, Smudger06 said:
That makes sense otherwise you've got the NCL with like 48 / 49 stronger clubs than a South (Southern Conference League) with maybe 12 or so Clubs of which even the top four or five would possibly be not on a par with the lowest NCL Division Clubs......
Possibly some of the London clubs that have a lot of Australian backpackers could compete on the field with NCL clubs but they'd never meet off field criteria. Beyond them I can't see anyone getting close.
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2 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:
This league one South idea has been talked about so many times but no one has yet to convince me it will benefit the game, aside from supposedly saving a small amount of central funding. There is also the small issue of flaws in these proposals, some of which you have highlighted above
Hopefully one day they'll be able to create a southern version of the NCL, but I don't think we're there yet. League 1 South seems a step too far.
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On 02/05/2021 at 11:11, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:
London Skolars, a new London side, Hemel, South Wales Scorpions, West Wales Raiders, Gloucestershire all golds, Bristol Sonics, Nottingham Outlaws, Coventry Bears, and any other new sides that want to apply and step up.
Bristol Sonics and South Wales Scorpions have both folded.
Nottingham would probably be reluctant to switch to a league that's probably not too different in standard from their current league but with more travelling.
I don't know how Hemel or Gloucestershire All Golds would feel about joining, and it may be possible to get extra Welsh or London teams to join but it doesn't really look like a League 1 South. Maybe NCL South but even not all clubs would meet off field criteria and it would be a demotion for the semi-pro clubs.
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On 28/04/2021 at 18:41, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:
League One looks like it could be in trouble. Let’s turn the negative into a positive. Spitting the League into a League One North and League One South would significantly reduce travel costs for clubs at that level, while also allowing us to bring in new expansion clubs into League One South, at a level their more likely able to compete at.
Name the teams you'd have in a League One South.
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On 29/04/2021 at 16:09, RugbyLeagueGeek said:
There is a Southern Conference that runs without funding. Could the Bears play in this competition if League 1 was disbanded and funding disappeared? It would be a shame if there wasn't a suitable level for them to play at.
The Southern Conference is two regional leagues neither of which covers the midlands, so no it wouldn't be a suitable level to play at. It's also a much lower playing standard.
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Apart from a few years in the early 1900s, and a two season experiment in the 1960s, rugby league used something closer to a conference system until the 1970s. There was a Lancashire League and Yorkshire League and clubs only played a handful of games against teams in the other league to make up the main league table. Before the formation of BARLA, the top tier of amateur rugby league tended to be things like the Warrington and District League, or the Halifax and Huddersfield League.
Even in football the non-league pyramid took a long time to form. There was little promotion and relegation between leagues, and until leagues started to merge in the 1960s there were a lot of local leagues below the Football League, with only the Southern League being at a particularly high standard, and none of them having promotion and relegation between them
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45 minutes ago, JonM said:
The "ordinary" match featuring South Shields is interesting - they weren't voted into the league until 1902 as far as I know, so this might have been a friendly right at the formation of the club?
They played a season of friendlies the year before joining the league
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Dewsbury Celtic seem to have a long history given they’re listed in the Heavy Woollen District League above
Naughty Northern Sweary Folk
in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Posted
I always think there's something seriously wrong about adults that get offended by something as harmless as swear words. Fair enough if they don't want you swearing in front of their children, but any other time it's just weird.