New Head of BBC Wales Sport

[jannerboyuk]

Interesting appointment, might see a more rugby league friendly tone given the programmes Carolyn has produced on league

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2022/carolyn-hitt-appointed-editor-of-bbc-radio-wales-and-sport

[Wolford6]

From a previous Carolyn Hitt Article in the Western Mail:

 ... for manual workers hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s a talent for rugby could be the only way of putting food on the table.

The player drain to rugby league in these desperate times was huge. “Seventy Welsh internationals went north between the two World Wars,” says historian Professor Gareth Williams. “Perhaps as many as 900 uncapped players went north. Is it any surprise that Wales didn’t win the Triple Crown between 1911 and 1950?”

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/the-rugby-codebreakers-billy-boston-14391534

 

From today's farewell column in the Western Mail:

It’s a column that has not only chronicled Welsh life – from devolution to Cool Cymru – but my own ...All the milestones of life are there – the wedding that never was (which happily turned out to be the greatest escape since Steve McQueen got on a motorbike!) ...

I’m also grateful for you for not replacing my byline picture since 2009 which has rendered me the Dorian Gray of Welsh journalism and is much cheaper than botox.

She's a national treasure.

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Wolford6

[welshmagpie]

She’s an absolute national gem. Fingers crossed she can assist Wales RL in her new role. 

[stevecl]

Dream on……..

It will take more than one person. We are constantly told here how rugby (union) is the ‘national sport’ when spectators and participant numbers would suggest soccer is #1. There is an entrenched RU bias in the media and she will do well to affect that on her own. 

[gingerjon]

21 hours ago, jannerboyuk said:

Interesting appointment, might see a more rugby league friendly tone given the programmes Carolyn has produced on league

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2022/carolyn-hitt-appointed-editor-of-bbc-radio-wales-and-sport

A few messages of congratulations would probably help.

[Angelic Cynic]

I saw the Codebreakers film she put together.

Then I read an article about her ' Welshness '.

The other code is all she cares about.

Shows the value of catching 'em young.

https://www.wales.com/visit/sport/nation-built-rugby

 

* The link isn't close to showing her love for the other code which is in her dna * - but I cannot find it,immediately. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Angelic Cynic

[Wolford6]

She can't do any worse than her predecessor. Listening figures were down to go alongside certain alleged personnel issues.

 

 

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, Angelic Cynic said:

I saw the Codebreakers film she put together.

Then I read an article about her ' Welshness '.

The other code is all she cares about.

Shows the value of catching 'em young.

https://www.wales.com/visit/sport/nation-built-rugby

She made her background quite clear in the codebreakers documentary and the angle she was approaching it from. As she did in explaining how she originally viewed Rugby League due to what she had been told/believed growing up. That's what made the documentary all the more powerful. 

[fighting irish]

On 26/06/2022 at 09:23, Wolford6 said:

From a previous Carolyn Hitt Article in the Western Mail:

 ... for manual workers hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s a talent for rugby could be the only way of putting food on the table.

The player drain to rugby league in these desperate times was huge. “Seventy Welsh internationals went north between the two World Wars,” says historian Professor Gareth Williams. “Perhaps as many as 900 uncapped players went north. Is it any surprise that Wales didn’t win the Triple Crown between 1911 and 1950?”

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/the-rugby-codebreakers-billy-boston-14391534

 

From today's farewell column in the Western Mail:

It’s a column that has not only chronicled Welsh life – from devolution to Cool Cymru – but my own ...All the milestones of life are there – the wedding that never was (which happily turned out to be the greatest escape since Steve McQueen got on a motorbike!) ...

I’m also grateful for you for not replacing my byline picture since 2009 which has rendered me the Dorian Gray of Welsh journalism and is much cheaper than botox.

She's a national treasure.

 

I'm surprised you decided to pick this quotation to support your claim she's a national treasure, especially if you mean we Rugby League fans should see her as such.

National treasure she may be, but that quotation is bound (and may even be designed) to stir resentment towards Rugby League, blaming us as the reason for WRU failures between 1911 and 1950.

She makes it quite plain in the article quoted above, by Angelic cynic where here loyalties lie.

I wait with bated breath, for the first pro-Rugby League feature as part of her new tenure. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by fighting irish

[Wolford6]

10 minutes ago, Angelic Cynic said:

I saw the Codebreakers film she put together.

Then I read an article about her ' Welshness '.

The other code is all she cares about.

Shows the value of catching 'em young.

https://www.wales.com/visit/sport/nation-built-rugby

 

* The link isn't close to showing her love for the other code which is in her dna * - but I cannot find it,immediately. 

Carolyn Hitt is in her fifties. She's been watching Welsh rugby union for forty years and, apart from university has lived in South Wales all her life. Do you honestly think she's going to chuck that away for a game in the North of England.

How many people in the North of England will switch from Rugby league to rugby union on the basis of a television documentary ... none. However, if they watched a documentary about village rugby where rugby union is a social focal point, they might gain a greater appreciation of RU as a grassroots sport.

[Wolford6]

19 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

I wait with baited breath, for the first pro-Rugby League feature as part of her new tenure. 

Well, we'll find out in the coverage of the World Cup, won't we. Unfortunately, Wales hasn't been given a home game. That's not the BBC's fault.

Carolyn's article mentions her documentary that had a huge affect on the people of South Wales. Many have historical family members who left for work in England in the Depression. I have several aunts and uncles who left for London, Coventry and Bath.

Before anyone pooh poohs that article from 2020, Carolyn's personal qualities and the South Wales society, read this one. March 2022 ... no progress?

https://www.wales247.co.uk/cardiff-bay-rugby-legends-statue-sculptor-announced

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Wolford6

[Wolford6]

22 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

 

National treasure she may be, but that quotation is bound (and may even be designed) to stir resentment towards Rugby League, blaming us as the reason for WRU failures between 1911 and 1950.

 

I think you've got a skewed view on this. The article effectively blames the dire state of the South Wales economy as the reason for WRU failures between 1911 and 1950.

During that period, the North of England and Scotland also were badly affected by the depression but most places had a greater variation of industry and more big cities. To be in a valley with one industry ... coal mining and the mine was shut ... was truly horrible. Family lore has it that Blaenavon had a midwife who was prone to delivering "stillborn" babies.  No NHS in those days.

The players who went North all sent money back to their families. I expect my Mam's brother who was a really good player and had a Wales Youth trial would have gone, but he died at Singapore in the war. Coventry had so many Welsh emigrants that, even today, there is Coventry Welsh RUFC.

[fighting irish]

17 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

I think you've got a skewed view on this. The article effectively blames the dire state of the South Wales economy as the reason for WRU failures between 1911 and 1950.

During that period, the North of England and Scotland also were badly affected by the depression but most places had a greater variation of industry and more big cities. To be in a valley with one industry ... coal mining and the mine was shut ... was truly horrible. Family lore has it that Blaenavon had a midwife who was prone to delivering "stillborn" babies.  No NHS in those days.

The players who went North all sent money back to their families. I expect my Mam's brother who was a really good player and had a Wales Youth trial would have gone, but he died at Singapore in the war. Coventry had so many Welsh emigrants that, even today, there is Coventry Welsh RUFC.

Yes the depression, a wicked and woeful time in 20th century history.

Of course the Rugby League, who were putting on sporting entertainment to packed houses, chose to assist their impoverished players by actually sharing the gate receipts with the very people providing the entertainment.

The Welsh Rugby Union however, maintained it was unsporting, ungentlemanly and even immoral, to accept payment for playing a game, deliberately obfuscating, by this callous sophistry, the vast gate receipts the WRU collected and banked while the players went hungry.

So perhaps, the next time she's looking for a reason why Wales didn't win a grand slam between 1911 and 1950 she should lay the blame where it really belongs, with the knobs who ran the WRU for profit and couldn't give a toss for the poor players who through their own blood sweat and tears, were actually providing the entertainment.

Edited June 26, 2022 by fighting irish

[GUBRATS]

16 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

Yes the depression, a wicked and woeful time in 20th century history.

Of course the Rugby League, who were putting on sporting entertainment to packed houses, chose to assist their impoverished players by actually sharing the gate receipts with the very people providing the entertainment.

The Welsh Rugby Union however, maintained it was unsporting, ungentlemanly and even immoral, to accept payment for playing a game, deliberately obfuscating, by this callous sophistry, the vast gate receipts the WRU collected and banked while the players went hungry.

So perhaps, the next time she's looking for a reason why Wales didn't win a grand slam between 1911 and 1950 she should lay the blame where it really belongs, with the knobs who ran the WRU for profit and couldn't give a toss for the poor players who through their own blood sweat and tears, were actually providing the entertainment.

A point I've often made when defending claims by certain posters on here that " union have done this , union have done that " , they didn't pay the players but still charged entry allowing investment in stadium and club infrastructure , expansion 

[Wolford6]

10 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

So perhaps, the next time she's looking for a reason why Wales didn't win a grand slam between 1911 and 1950 she should lay the blame where it really belongs, with the knobs who ran the WRU for profit and couldn't give a toss for the poor players who through their own blood sweat and tears, were actually providing the entertainment.

Well, we can agree on that. The WRU, like all the mineowners and steelworks owners, had complete power over their domain.

My uncle was a prominent member of the mineworkers association in Blaenavon. Before they reopened the mine after one dispute, he and a few others were told that they would never be taken back and the owners would make sure they would never get another job in any other local mine. He was a milkman in London for the next thirty odd years.

My Grandfather had his forearm smashed in a roof-fall down the mine. It looked like it would have to be amputated but his sister, a local publican, paid for it to be saved by a Harley Street surgeon. It had limited strength and movement for the rest of his life. Compensation? The mineowners gave him a different job on the surface.

[Wolford6]

The position of the Welsh RU hierarchy is indicated by a sort of Welsh version of the Barbarians ... Crawshaws XV ... that played charity games when I was a kid.

 

The Crawshays owned ironworks where the workers were treated so badly that it led to the Merthyr Riots of 1831. They inaugurated the Red Flag, still used by rebels and protesters today. The authorities reacted with force and 26 men died. Two were hanged, including Dic Penderyn. From Wikipedia:

James Abbott, a hairdresser from Merthyr Tydfil who had testified at Penderyn's trial, later said that he had lied under oath, claiming that he had been instructed to do so by Lord Melbourne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merthyr_Rising

Yeah, Hip Hip Hooray for the Crawshays

 

[fighting irish]

1 hour ago, Wolford6 said:

The position of the Welsh RU hierarchy is indicated by a sort of Welsh version of the Barbarians ... Crawshaws XV ... that played charity games when I was a kid.

 

The Crawshays owned ironworks where the workers were treated so badly that it led to the Merthyr Riots of 1831. They inaugurated the Red Flag, still used by rebels and protesters today. The authorities reacted with force and 26 men died. Two were hanged, including Dic Penderyn. From Wikipedia:

James Abbott, a hairdresser from Merthyr Tydfil who had testified at Penderyn's trial, later said that he had lied under oath, claiming that he had been instructed to do so by Lord Melbourne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merthyr_Rising

Yeah, Hip Hip Hooray for the Crawshays

 

I can throw a stone to Dic Penderyn's grave, from where I am.

[Scubby]

Rugby Union, Pits.....

Can I throw May Boyce to complete the tricast? 

[jannerboyuk]

Jesus this thread, this sport. I think i’m done.

[fighting irish]

9 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Rugby Union, Pits.....

Can I throw May Boyce to complete the tricast? 

You might as well, but don't forget Tom Jones mind you! (That's a Wenglish colloquialism, just for you). 

[Wolford6]

9 minutes ago, jannerboyuk said:

Jesus this thread, this sport. I think i’m done.

Don't be daft. You can't be a Celt unless you can bear a grudge that lasts centuries

[RigbyLuger]

26 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Rugby Union, Pits.....

Can I throw May Boyce to complete the tricast? 

Was he there?

[Scubby]

7 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

Was he there?

Where wasn't he?

[fighting irish]

22 minutes ago, jannerboyuk said:

Jesus this thread, this sport. I think i’m done.

 

11 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

Don't be daft. You can't be a Celt unless you can bear a grudge that lasts centuries

Look fella's let me set the record straight.

My grudge is not a century old.

The life ban, ostracism, sneering suspicion, and local prejudices, I'm bearing a grudge about happened to my father, my cousin, some very good friends of mine and to me personally.

Just because you have no experience of it Jannerboy, doesn't mean it wasn't/isn't real.

Please tell me, you're not going to say it's my fault, or I should get over it. That would be the worst kind of ''victim blaming'' and a willful blindness to the reality of their vile treatment of our best and fairest. 

What would make it easier to bear this disgusting injustice and engender a willingness to forgive and forget? 

How about an honest acknowledgement that their ''amateur ethos'' and punitive (lifelong) treatment of our players was immoral all along, that they were hypocritical, in the maintenance of prejudice towards us, while paying their own players boot money and a heartfelt apology, to every player and their families, that ''went north'' in the last century?

 

 

[Scubby]

Congrats. I'm sure if she reads this thread it will energise her to give RL more prominence in the Welsh TV landscape