List of Rugby League towns

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

On 14/04/2024 at 13:13, Damien said:

Additionally it has always amazed me how many Latics fans are from St Helens, including ardent Saints RL fans. These things aren't always as they seem.

Plenty of Wakey, Cas and Fev fans who will happily boo and denigrate the Whinos over the summer....then merrily sing MOT at Elland Road

[daz39]

7 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Plenty of Wakey, Cas and Fev fans who will happily boo and denigrate the Whinos over the summer....then merrily sing MOT at Elland Road

Which is how it should be.

I have a mate who is a massive LUFC and Giants fan and he goes berserk when he hears the Rhinos lot singing that...

" It's a Leeds United song you *****" he screams, and he's right.

[Damien]

12 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Plenty of Wakey, Cas and Fev fans who will happily boo and denigrate the Whinos over the summer....then merrily sing MOT at Elland Road

I can understand that a little more given Leeds United are one of, if not, the Premier Yorkshire Football team and are the Yorkshire version of a Liverpool or Man Utd. Saints fans choosing to follow Wigan Athletic instead of the plethora of North West Football teams just seems weird.

[EggFace]

22 hours ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

Although Leeds had Leeds united in the 50s and I would say 60s it was a Rugby League city. Leeds ,Hunslet and Bramley all flourished. 

Leeds played a cup round against Wigan 38000 whist although not on same day 8k . Leeds United did average crowds comparable to the 3 clubs together ,but they were unfashionable and the talking point was mainly about RL that made Leeds a RL town . All changed now it's now a football city 

Well its needs to be changed back.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

The word city as we know it today comes from the Latin, Civitas, meaning community. This suggests that any community could be a city should the old Latin be followed. The word urban also originates in Latin, from Urbes, which was actually a word used by Romans to describe a walled city, so a community with more tangible boundaries. These words are closely linked to the Greek word, Polis, as well which is were our modern day word, Metropolis, comes from. All these words simply refer to a community of people. 

As has been said, in this country with distinguish between different communities by granting Royal Charters to communities to give them city-status. In medieval times, city status was given with the building of a cathedral because it was the seat of a Bishop, the origins of Cathedral being the Latin word, Cathedra, meaning seat.

Since the 19th century however, this is no longer a requirement of city-status and thus 16 cities have been created that do not have a Cathedral. An interesting little anomoly of this though is there are also 6 towns in England and Wales (not sure about Scotland) that have cathedrals but are not cities, either from them losing this status or the cathedrals being consecrated in the last couple of centuries when the rules eased. I cannot remember all 6 off the top of my head but I can remember Blackburn, Brecon, Bury St. Edmunds and Rochester. 

[EggFace]

3 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

This is exactly it. It is easy to play, anyone, any age, any size can play it. Both boys and girls can play it together. There are so many different versions of the game that can be played from a full on match with 11 on each side to a couple of mates taking shots at each other in the park with a couple of jumpers or trees or something for goalposts. You can't really do this with RL. Football is a much, much more accessible game. 

Well we got Touch and Tag Rugby now and that includes both boys and girls, adults, age, social or serious, club,park and beach.

[Agbrigg]

On 13/04/2024 at 23:00, meast said:

Castleford

Wakefield 

Featherstone 

Leigh

Rugby was the dominant sport in Huddersfield upto the late 1910's when Huddersfield Town under Herbert Chapman became successful.

Both clubs had similar histories throughout the 20th century but football is now king in the birthplace of the sport.

Well reading through this thread and appology if missed, no one seems to have mentioned keighley and whithaven as non soccer towns

[WakefieldCityLoyal]

27 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Plenty of Wakey, Cas and Fev fans who will happily boo and denigrate the Whinos over the summer....then merrily sing MOT at Elland Road

As Wakefield is the biggest City in England without a pro football team and LUFC is the closest team for most of Wakefield and always has drawn big support from Wakefield hence having a club shop in the City centre for a number of years and MOT is LUFC’s song. That’s why we merrily sing MOT at Elland Road and very happily boo and denigrate the Whinos over the summer. Just not this summer.

Up the Trin

MOT

[WakefieldCityLoyal]

On 14/04/2024 at 08:04, SouthBedfordshireFan said:

Please do not get me started on what is and what is not cities because honestly besides Leeds none of the places that have a professional/semi professional rugby league team are cities in my book. Especially Wakefield. 

Apologies. 

Although small for a city, Wakefield is still bigger than most RL towns.  Best little City on earth.

Up the Trin

[Griff]

55 minutes ago, daz39 said:

Which is how it should be.

I have a mate who is a massive LUFC and Giants fan and he goes berserk when he hears the Rhinos lot singing that...

" It's a Leeds United song you *****" he screams, and he's right.

Yeah, bit of an own goal with the song ending "Leeds, Leeds, Leeds" instead of "Leeds United, Leeds United, Leeds United" though.

[Barley Mow]

3 minutes ago, Griff said:

Yeah, bit of an own goal with the song ending "Leeds, Leeds, Leeds" instead of "Leeds United, Leeds United, Leeds United" though.

Although they never play the whole recording at Headingley, because it begins "Here we go with Leeds United, we're gonna give the boys a hand, stand up and sing for Leeds United..."

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

summer....then merrily sing MOT at Elland Road

What's that then? The aggregate that builders use in foundations or the annual road worthy vehicle test certificate?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, daz39 said:

Which is how it should be.

I have a mate who is a massive LUFC and Giants fan and he goes berserk when he hears the Rhinos lot singing that...

" It's a Leeds United song you *****" he screams, and he's right.

Shouldn't a Giants fan support the Terriers?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

12 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

What's that then? The aggregate that builders use in foundations or the annual road worthy vehicle test certificate?

A Mot is a pithy remark

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

27 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Shouldn't a Giants fan support the Terriers?

Exactly what I was thinking. 

[koli]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

I can understand that a little more given Leeds United are one of, if not, the Premier Yorkshire Football team and are the Yorkshire version of a Liverpool or Man Utd. Saints fans choosing to follow Wigan Athletic instead of the plethora of North West Football teams just seems weird.

A fairly recent phenomena I think following the Lactics getting into the higher divisions n may have a lot to do with relative ease of getting tickets versus the bigger NW clubs.

Growing up in the 60s/70s the west side of St Helens followed LFC n EFC while east side MUFC and to a smaller extent BWFC and MCFC.

When I was a small boy there were still former St Helens Recs supporters who would support Wigan or Widnes rather than Saints.

 

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

1 hour ago, WakefieldCityLoyal said:

As Wakefield is the biggest City in England without a pro football team and LUFC is the closest team for most of Wakefield and always has drawn big support from Wakefield hence having a club shop in the City centre for a number of years and MOT is LUFC’s song. That’s why we merrily sing MOT at Elland Road and very happily boo and denigrate the Whinos over the summer. Just not this summer.

Up the Trin

MOT

I have looked into that claim and it turns out that claim uses the broader MDC which includes the distinct and separate settlements of Castleford, Pontefract, Featherstone, Ossett, Normanton, South Elmsall and swathes of rural land in its count.

 

From my assessment Warrington is the largest town in England without a team in the top 5 divisions. I.e before the football pyramid regionalises.

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

The word city as we know it today comes from the Latin, Civitas, meaning community. This suggests that any community could be a city should the old Latin be followed. The word urban also originates in Latin, from Urbes, which was actually a word used by Romans to describe a walled city, so a community with more tangible boundaries. These words are closely linked to the Greek word, Polis, as well which is were our modern day word, Metropolis, comes from. All these words simply refer to a community of people. 

As has been said, in this country with distinguish between different communities by granting Royal Charters to communities to give them city-status. In medieval times, city status was given with the building of a cathedral because it was the seat of a Bishop, the origins of Cathedral being the Latin word, Cathedra, meaning seat.

Since the 19th century however, this is no longer a requirement of city-status and thus 16 cities have been created that do not have a Cathedral. An interesting little anomoly of this though is there are also 6 towns in England and Wales (not sure about Scotland) that have cathedrals but are not cities, either from them losing this status or the cathedrals being consecrated in the last couple of centuries when the rules eased. I cannot remember all 6 off the top of my head but I can remember Blackburn, Brecon, Bury St. Edmunds and Rochester. 

Thank you for your post. It was an interesting read. I am going to create that thread soon in the non-RL related section of this forum.

[JonM]

On 14/04/2024 at 13:15, Harry Stottle said:

And my theory why it became so popular is that it could be played on relatively any surface. 

And yet, go to India, you'll see cricket being played on any surface.

As a kid, we used to play RL on the concrete school playground, with a tin can for a ball, or even someone's pump nicked out of their PE bag. You were pretty motivated not to get caught in possession - and perhaps an explanation of why my primary school produced 3 halfbacks who played for GB in the 1980s-1990s.

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

All those interested in the what is or what is not a city conversation a new thread has been created. 

 

Thank you. 

[Damien]

48 minutes ago, koli said:

A fairly recent phenomena I think following the Lactics getting into the higher divisions n may have a lot to do with relative ease of getting tickets versus the bigger NW clubs.

Growing up in the 60s/70s the west side of St Helens followed LFC n EFC while east side MUFC and to a smaller extent BWFC and MCFC.

When I was a small boy there were still former St Helens Recs supporters who would support Wigan or Widnes rather than Saints.

Not recent at all, I remember being amazed when I first met people like this at College and School in the 80s and 90s.

Edited April 15 by Damien

[fieldofclothofgold]

3 hours ago, daz39 said:

Which is how it should be.

I have a mate who is a massive LUFC and Giants fan and he goes berserk when he hears the Rhinos lot singing that...

" It's a Leeds United song you *****" he screams, and he's right.

What would your mate do if he heard students from university of Leeds singing " marching on together " when their teams are playing ? And not only football, because they do you know . By the way what is his connection the Giants and not Town and Leeds united ?

[Harry Stottle]

52 minutes ago, JonM said:

And yet, go to India, you'll see cricket being played on any surface.

As a kid, we used to play RL on the concrete school playground, with a tin can for a ball, or even someone's pump nicked out of their PE bag. You were pretty motivated not to get caught in possession - and perhaps an explanation of why my primary school produced 3 halfbacks who played for GB in the 1980s-1990s.

Aye but would you play it in a terraced street? Broken widows?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

2 hours ago, SouthBedfordshireFan said:

Exactly what I was thinking. 

We Bedfordshire folk tend to be always correct 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

55 minutes ago, fieldofclothofgold said:

What would your mate do if he heard students from university of Leeds singing " marching on together " when their teams are playing ? And not only football, because they do you know . By the way what is his connection the Giants and not Town and Leeds united ?

What so Leeds united sports teams sing MOT too? 

Like the netball and union sides etc?