BRADFORD triumphs may have featured in both issues 200 and 300, but they were facing relegation from Super League by the time number 400 came along in August 2014.
Our Bull-manic current editor Lorraine Marsden need not worry, however, as they were enjoying victory of a different kind – and she was there to report it!
It came in the form of a charity golf day at Cookridge Hall Golf Club for the Steve Prescott Foundation and St Gemma’s Hospice. Competitors included Ryan Hall and organiser Richie Mathers but the winner was then-Bradford man James Donaldson, who made it three wins out of three for the club after Chris Nero and Luke Gale won the previous two editions.
“Maybe Bradford players have too much free time on their hands and they spend it playing golf,” Mathers told our Lorraine afterwards – at least she was warned before heartbreak ensued!
Plenty of weightier topics were also covered, from the problem of players betting on the game after several recent suspensions for such offences, to ex-Great Britain star Bobbie Goulding’s recovery from alcoholism and a car crash to play for Barrow at the age of 42.
Jamie Jones-Buchanan had already contributed features of his own to RLW as he combined winning titles at Leeds with media work, but he was the subject of an in-depth piece this time. It started with an explanation of his mind – “There’s all kinds of pipes in there going in different directions” – and continues through family, faith and… Florence, comparing Headingley to the Santa Maria cathedral of all places. Those pipes!
And the international game was as close to the magazine’s heart as ever, with reports of Papua New Guinea winning a Rugby League Commonwealth Championship in Glasgow (an under-19s nines tournament played alongside the Commonwealth Games proper, though not as an official demonstration sport), and Spain winning their first-ever international fixture, despite the frightening experience of a gunman killing four people just yards from their Brussels hotel before they played Belgium.
ALSO IN 2014
WORLD EVENTS
Voters in the Scottish referendum opt to stay as part of the United Kingdom rather than becoming an independent nation.
The Ebola virus epidemic sweeps across West Africa, infecting almost 30,000 people and killing at least 11,000.
Much loved American actor and comedian Robin Williams dies, as do British actors Bob Hoskins, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Rik Mayall and Richard Attenborough.
K-pop’s Psy takes the music world by storm as his hit and dance craze Gangnam Style reaches 2 billion views on You Tube.
BIGGEST SELLING SONG
Happy – Pharrell
TOP UK BOX OFFICE FILM
(according to saltypopcorn.co.uk)
The Lego Movie
RUGBY LEAGUE WINNERS
League Leaders’ Shield: St Helens
Super League Grand Final: St Helens (v Wigan Warriors, 14-6)
Challenge Cup: Leeds Rhinos (v Castleford Tigers, 23-10)
Man of Steel: Daryl Clark
ANOTHER MEMORABLE SPORTING MOMENT
England finish top of the medal table at the Commonwealth games in Glasgow with 58 golds, 59 silvers and 57 bronzes.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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