Apart from Rugby League what are your sporting passions?

[meast]

The only other sport I watch is football, however, I'm talking non league/grassroots football (Emley AFC), I occasionally watch Sheffield Wednesday but those days are few and far between and 1.FC Union Berlin when I can get over.

I very rarely follow anything to do with top level football (the sporting element has been lost due to copious amounts of sports doping with oil money).

I watch the odd ice hockey game, local cricket but not much else

I don't pay for TV sport so don't watch much these days, bits of tennis, football game maybe, maybe athletics albeit very rarely.

Back in the day when sport was still very much an enjoyable pastime, available and affordable to all, I could watch most sports and be familiar with most participants, as I'm sure everyone could.

It's a different world now though.

[Bedford Roughyed]

Sports I watch and follow

• Strongman (more than just Christmas!)
• Crossfit (no idea how...)

Sports I watch but not follow closely

• Rugby Union (if its on, I might have it as background noise)
• Football
• Cricket (test matches, etc)
• American Football 

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

For me it is as follows:

Sports I watch and follow

• Rugby League - obviously!  Introduced to it in the 1960s with a family move from rural Gloucestershire; became a frequent attendee at Hilton and Central Parks.  Interest reawakened by Sky Sports (to give credit where it is due!)
• Ice hockey - I first got attracted by the contrast of speed and elegance with brutality about 60 years ago.  When it was, for me, practical to do so (1968-74/88-95) , I watched Durham Wasps live; sadly they are no more.  Down at my end of the country I have often watched Basingstoke Bison's home games.
• GAA (primarily hurling) - I first saw this on BBC2 in the mid-60s and was hooked.  As OnStrike says, hurling is 'the game of the Gods' when at its best.  I knocked about with the Irish lads in Bristol in the late 60s and took the lead in setting up a very early (for Britain) minor grade (U-18) gaelic football team which I was young enough to play for.  In those days, the 'Gloucestershire' county board of the GAA embraced clubs from Cardiff, Newport, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Swindon and Salisbury.
• Shinty - I've done various things in this sport including take a six-a-side team from Northallerton to St Andrews University five years in a row for their sixes tournament, and co-edit 'The Shinty Yearbook'.  Old habits die hard and I still check the scores online and watch the few live matches there are on BBC Scotland or BBC Alba.

Sports I watch but not follow closely

• Cricket - bits here and there, and I check the county scores for county championship and 50-overs-a-side games; shorter versions leave me cold, I'm afraid, unless it is at local clubs and works team level.

Sports I have watched live but do not watch

• Rugby union - used to watch a lot (and play a bit) about forty or more years ago, but nowadays find it is (a) a sport that is hard to follow if you don't know the rules any more (and boy, how they have changed in that time, often, of course, by adopting rugby league practice) and (b) it is too stop-start.  A year or two ago, I experimented sometimes when I was watching something on Sky Sports and knew there was a union game being shown live on another channel.  I kept randomly flicking across to the union and was not surprised to discover that the ball was not in play more than 50% of the times I did so!
• Soccer - first 'big' sporting event I ever attended live was on a family holiday back to Aberdeen, when my aunt and uncle took me to see Aberdeen play Hibs in the final of the short-lived Scottish Summer Cup.  In my late teens for a few years, I watched Bristol City at Ashton Gate quite often.

Sports I play

• Table tennis - at the modest level of Salisbury & District TT League Division 2 (and, yes, as you ask, there are only two divisions!) and earlier in life in the lower divisions of first the Northallerton and later the Keighley leagues.

Hawkman wrote this:

"Hate is a strong word, I don't hate any sports and can't understand people who use such language, but sports I'll never watch, again, after trying to once.

American football, a total mess,  stop start stop start, I might get into it if I had my brain removed and replaced by a clockwork mouse.

Basketball,  up and down the court , in the hoop, repeats 200 times a game,yawn.

Athletics, some people can run faster than others and hurl things further,  so what?"

I could have pretty much written that verbatim, but would add to it most motor racing and horse racing; things going round and round on a predetermined course just don't do it for me - still, each to their own.

[ivans82]

Horse Racing , Speedway ,Athletics ,Test Match Cricket and Snooker are my sporting interests outside RL . Back in the 70`s/80`s saw all the snooker greats playing in my local clubs .Calendar was pretty empty then , and the pro`s of the day made their money by touring around the country playing exhibition games .Alex Higgins was as you saw on telly a proper hurricane , but Doug Mountjoy was just as you expected too just smoked his ciggies and drank pints with the locals as the games went on , no airs and graces with Doug .

Edited September 5, 2023 by ivans82

[Spidey]

On 04/09/2023 at 14:35, Bedford Roughyed said:

Strongman (more than just Christmas!)

I went to my first ever Strongman event the other week at the Halliwell Jones stadium. I’ve never been into it before but will certainly go again. It was better than anything I’d seen previously at that ground

[Spidey]

Slight twist:

Sports I’ve watched live:

RL, Cricket, International Rules, Strongman, Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Baseball

Sports I want to see live:

American Football, Cycling (track), Hurling, Gaelic Football

Sports I try and follow

RL, Football (but can take or leave it) I always get into bits of the Olympics but outside of that not interested in the majority of the events

 

I don’t really have much passion for sports outside of RL and even that’s waning being a Widnes fan

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

On 04/09/2023 at 14:35, Bedford Roughyed said:

Sports I watch and follow

• Strongman (more than just Christmas!)
• Crossfit (no idea how...)

Sports I watch but not follow closely

• Rugby Union (if its on, I might have it as background noise)
• Football
• Cricket (test matches, etc)
• American Football 

Yeah I like strongman too 

Do they do any drug testing in that? Il

[Bedford Roughyed]

3 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Do they do any drug testing in that?

Yes….well…. For things like cocaine…. Other things….no….. juiced to the eyeballs….

[Padge]

Hating union

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Yes….well…. For things like cocaine…. Other things….no….. juiced to the eyeballs….

Yeah they must be...think Thor has more or less admitted it 

Strong men competitors must have a drastically reduced life span 

[Bedford Roughyed]

59 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Yeah they must be...think Thor has more or less admitted it 

Strong men competitors must have a drastically reduced life span 

They all use it, but because of sponsors won’t openly say so.  There are a couple who might claim to be natty, but 95% are on the full works.

[EggFace]

Love Rugby League and played a little plus Touch.

Like Rugby Union as a local club game and watch the Falcons when I can plus like 6 Nations, European Rugby Champions Cup and World Cup but the rules and Ref's are starting to ###### me off and can not stand Springboke Rugby and the old elitists attitude and the way Forwards thought they were the bee's knees.

NFL/NCAA Football high lights and in the background and check on the CFL.

Boxing watched and trained in it and love the introducing of Cold War countries coming into the Pro Game got into with end career's of Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas The Hitman Hearns and then Iron Mike Tyson, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank.

Combat Sports and watched live or on video, Euro Sport's like Muay Thai, K-1, pride old UFC but don't follow it as much as too into Rugby League also liked Semi Contact Martial Arts like Shotokan Karate, Liverpool Freestyle, Tae Kwon Do and the old Birningham Lau Gar Kung Fu also done Judo and Catch as Catch Can Wrestling.

Old Pro Wrestling on Dickie Davis World of Sport and it was that that got me into Martial Arts with Iron Fist Murphy, Kwik Kick Sammy Lee, Mark"Rollerball" Rocco but couldn't not stand Big Daddy.

I think Hurling is a fine Sport and appreciate Gaelic Football (bet it's real fun to play and maybe it's a middle ground where backs of Rugby and Soccer players could play against each other).

Aussie Rules highlights like NFL but find the game only suits a certain body type (what do the small, stocky, fatties do in Melbourne) and loved the movie 'The Club'.

Used to watch Kevin Keegans years in the 1980's and 90's but can not stand the diving, hooligans and pub experts on the game and more so the digusting amout of money involved also the over top hype of the Womens World Cup and the drams of the Spanish team after.

Used to like watching Athletes and liked 100m, 100m Relay, 200m, 400m and liked doing it at school.

Respect Ice Hockey but not a follower.

Respect Cricket and the local club grounds and take slight interest wit world cup and Ashes.

Couldn't under how sports in the 80's and 90's like Snooker, Darts, Golf, Figure Skating were/are big.

Baseball gets respect but not into it.

Basketball is so over rated and hate the American term the G.O.A.T.

Got to marvel at Gymnastic's but it never gets back pages and should be bigger.

Lover Rollerball.

[Copa]

Sports I watch and follow

• Rugby league 

Sports I watch on tv but not follow closely

• Cross fit - I don’t hunt it down but I’ll watch if it’s on.
• Disc golf - I don’t hunt it down but I’ll watch if it’s on.
• netball - I don’t hunt it down but I’ll watch if it’s on
• nfl - as above 
• cricket - as above 
• Gaelic games - as above 

Sports I have watched in person but do not watch

• Soccer - internationals, state league, a-league, EPL, Indonesia’s top league, lower English leagues. I’ll go to be sociable if friends or family are attending or playing.
• AFL - I’ve been to half a dozen games to give it a proper go. I realised I just don’t enjoy it.
• National baseball league in Australia - the beer and snacks are great. I’ve been a couple of times with friends to be sociable. Games are a bit boring though.
• australian national ice hockey league- been a few times and it’s fun. I’m keen to go again.

Sports I play:

• Disc golf. I’ve traveled and played in disc golf tournaments in Australia. I’m rubbish at it but I enjoy it. Canberra has 3 good courses and is getting another one soon. In Australia the vast majority of courses are on public land and it’s free to turn up and play 24/7 (you can use glow discs in the dark). 
•  Sports I’m considering are rogaining, Blood Bowl (competitive board game), lawn bowls and touch football.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Copa