What a win for Hunslet Club Parkside on Saturday!
The south Leeds outfit returned from the capital with a 28-6 Betfred Challenge Cup win at League 1 outfit London Skolars under their belts and will now entertain 1998 competition winners Sheffield Eagles on the last weekend of this month.
It was, in truth, no massive surprise that Parkside prevailed. Top National Conference League outfits are no pushovers, far from it, and the Skolars, who are in a rebuilding process right now, will have known from the outset that they were up against it. And so it proved, although they can maybe derive solace from the fact that the scoreline was tilted somewhat by a couple of late tries, even if those scores suggest that the amateurs were fitter, physically and perhaps mentally, than the professionals.
The Cup dream also continues for the Royal Navy. The Senior Servicemen are preparing for a trip to Batley Bulldogs after beating York Acorn in Portsmouth and it’s a fantastic achievement, regardless of how things go at Mount Pleasant. Not too many folk, I think, would have predicted that the Navy would have gone this far in the venerable competition when the draw for the first round was made – but they have. And with some momentum now behind them, they’ll certainly give their all when they take on Batley – Challenge Cup giants themselves in the early days of the Northern Union when, with the great Wattie Davies holding sway, they won the Challenge Cup three times in its first five years.
I was at Lock Lane on Saturday for the Castleford outfit’s clash with Rochdale Hornets. The 28-12 scoreline in Hornets’ favour utterly fails to reflect the contest and, as Lane coach Paul Couch later reflected, “they were there for the taking.” But a massive penalty count at a crucial stage ultimately scuppered the hopes of the hosts, who can nevertheless take huge satisfaction from what was a memorable day, on and off (where the occasion was very professionally handled) the pitch. And Hornets’ amateur neighbours, Rochdale Mayfield, impressed against Doncaster by all accounts in yet another illustration of the qualities that underpin the amateur game.
Meanwhile, York Acorn should have arrived home by the time readers of League Express plough through this offering – but possibly not, it’s a long trek from the south coast to the Minster City.
There was nothing that could be done about that. The Challenge Cup is, after all, a national competition, but as I’ve speculated from time to time, the day could arrive when, at league level anyway, fixtures might become increasingly localised.
That would be for a host of reasons, not least the impact on the environment and on players’, coaches’ and administrators’ time (and maybe on referees also).
Then there’s the cost, either real or potential. A sequence of away draws in national competitions can be financially testing, and I was given an instance late last week.
I was told – not by the club itself, I have to stress – that Hull Wyke’s Under 16s are taking something of a ‘hit’ (albeit a welcome one in terms of on-field success) through their progress in the BARLA National Cup.
The team drew Halton Farnworth Hornets, near Widnes, and the bus trip cost £750.
Wyke travelled to Rochdale Mayfield at the next stage – and, again, the travel bill was a cool £750.
And, lo and behold, Hull Wyke copped an away pairing at Hensingham, of Cumbria, for last weekend’s round. The bus for that little jaunt set the club back £1200 while, in addition, an overnight stay was necessary, costing, I understand, another £1140. And that’s not including breakfast, for which another £400 has to be found.
Crikey! Cup progress can be an expensive business can’t it, and I’ve no doubt at all that many other clubs (especially those on the geographical fringes) have similar tales to tell – although I state again that Hull Wyke haven’t approached me about this. But such an experience can make clubs think twice, I suspect, about entering again.
Meanwhile, Friday’s Community Club update from the Rugby Football League was diverting and illustrated how approaches to sport (and throughout society in general) change over time.
The missive centred on newly introduced sentencing guidelines at the grassroots although, as I read it, they apply at all levels under the RFL’s ‘Enjoy the Game’ campaign.
The RFL insisted quite reasonably, in its email, that ‘Enjoy the Game is about creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all involved, which “for players means playing hard and playing fair.”
Nothing wrong with that. Nor, as far as prevailing sensibilities are concerned anyway, is the announcement of “tougher sanctions for offences involving contact to the head; if a match official sees an intentional head butt or strike to the head during play this will result in an immediate red card.”
Again, that’s sound reasoning, backed by a number of factors offered by the RFL, ranging from player welfare, the perceived need for stronger deterrents to violent play which (the governing body adds, “has no place in the modern game”), Rugby League’s reputation and, what looks to me like being the key factor in the initiative, the sport’s need to protect itself from future litigation.
All very laudable and, as I say, who can argue against the RFL’s stance. But it’s a planet – a universe almost – away from the sport (and not only Rugby League, either) that I once knew. Different times, different ways.
As it happens I had a call, only a matter of hours before the RFL emailed clubs, from a former player who has been diagnosed with dementia and who wanted to talk about his own experience and how he sees it as (to paraphrase him, in my own words) “these are the kind of things that can happen; in the final analysis life is for living and, as such, involves risk.”
The RFL, and other governing bodies and organisations, is entirely correct to take the action it has, and cannot sensibly be criticised for it, given current-day mores. My worry, however, is that as such processes continue, Rugby League (and many other sports or pastimes) could become so watered down that they’re hardly worth bothering with.
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