THE 2025 BARLA National Cup reaches its quarter-finals stage on Saturday.
All four ties could be classics, including the two involving last year’s finalists; holders Thatto Heath Crusaders are at King Cross Park, of Halifax, and runners-up Orrell St James take on Cumbrian big guns Wath Brow Hornets.
The other two games feature clubs with strong pedigrees. Kippax Welfare are at home to Brighouse Rangers and Sharlston Rovers, who are no strangers at all to National Cup Finals or Champion of Champions deciders (how I miss that latter competition) entertain Woolston Rovers, who once bestrode the National Conference League.
It’s an opportunity for some of the most venerated names in grassroots Rugby League to reach the penultimate stage of one of amateur Rugby League’s most important competitions, and at this stage it’s very difficult to tip who the finalists will be when the National Cup reaches its conclusion in early November, at a venue to be announced.
A couple of District Leagues are also in the limelight on Friday evening. The Barrow ARL’s Barton Townley Cup Final will be hosted by the town’s professional club and I’m sure that a big crowd will convene at Craven Park for the clash of Dalton and Millom. The Huddersfield ARL, meanwhile, will hold its Holliday Cup Final the same night, when Almondbury Lions and Newsome Panthers will go head-to-head at Laund Hill.
As in Barrow, there should be a very good attendance for the climax of a competition which was first played in 1885/86, which was way back in the rugby union era, in fact it was a decade before the launch of the Northern Union. As such, the Holliday Cup could perhaps be the oldest competition in Rugby League; I’d appreciate the views of any readers who might have a different opinion.
Other than those admittedly major games, the options for grassroots fans are again on the thin side.
There’s only one fixture taking place in the National Conference League, the Division One meeting of Wigan St Patrick’s and Heworth, after the match was postponed a few weeks ago because Pats’ pitch at Clarington Park was unfit through the extreme heat.
It’s good, to my mind, that District League Finals are high on this week’s agenda, given that the Leeds & District League has announced that its popular heritage reunion will again be taking place in November, at the sumptuous Irish Centre on York Road.
Two of my favourite players, Francis Cummins and Graham Eccles, will be interviewed by an old pal of mine, Loz Baker, and I’m sure that they will have many a tale to tell. Eccles was, in my opinion, one of the best tacklers of all time, belying his comparatively diminutive stature for a second row by blocking up the middle for Leeds against allcomers during the 1970s. He therefore played a huge part in the Loiners’ sustained successes during that era.
Cummins, meanwhile, burst on to the scene for Leeds as a very young player in the 1990s and has gone on to remarkable success off the field after having enjoyed a glittering career. These days he is a very highly regarded (and that’s not a phrase I’ve thrown in lightly) coach for Hull FC’s Academy, and those players who come under his wing are indeed fortunate to be nurtured by him.
I’ll be there, on Friday 21 November, and I’m looking forward to seeing who will be inducted into the Leeds & District League’s prestigious Hall of Fame.
The reunion is something that other leagues should consider emulating (although there’s a huge amount of work involved, I have to admit) and my advice to all readers is to get in touch with either Glenn Davies or Sam Horner to book your tickets, especially as it’s only a fiver admission.
I spoke to Glenn last week, incidentally, not only regarding the reunion but to check on his health, as it had emerged in a WhatsApp thread that he’s not been too well.
He revealed (typically, he’d kept in under wraps a bit) that he had a slight stroke nearly three months ago, but that although he’s a bit wobbly he’s on the mend. That last bit must be true as, when I rang him, he was at Hunslet’s hugely popular breakfast club at the South Leeds Stadium, no doubt boosting everyone’s appetite by the sight of a seven-inch long scar on his neck, the result of an operation on an artery which was required as not enough oxygen was, he tells me, getting to his brain.
Moving on, while continuing a clear-out of the cubby-hole that I laughingly call my study I came across – not for the first time – something that led to an hour or so’s diversion.
It was the brochure for the 1996 Student Rugby League World Cup, which was held in this country, and it really does make interesting reading.
There were contributions by, and references to, people who remain (and were, in the cases of those who have sadly left us) so important to the cause of Rugby League in the world of further education, not least Cec Thompson and David Oxley, both of whom are departed, and Abe Kerr and Niel Wood (happily, the duo are still making important contributions).
The competition was played from 17th to 31st August (timely, that, as it’s exactly 29 years ago) and was staged at twenty grounds, namely Wilderspool, Thrum Hall, Post Office Road, Hilton Park, Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium, Gateshead’s International Stadium, The Boulevard, Belle Vue, the Ryedale Stadium, Cougar Park, Odsal, Hull KR’s Craven Park, Wheldon Road, Sale, The Valley (London), Cheltenham, Wigan’s Central Park, Crown Flatt and The Willows.
Sadly, in my opinion, several of those grounds no longer exist. Whether Student Rugby League exists in some of the twelve countries that took part is another matter.
They were, in alphabetical order, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, United States of America and Wales.
The sport was certainly burgeoning at that time, or at least it appeared to be, and I vividly recall watching the Netherlands play at Bramley’s McLaren Field in, I think, the late 1980s.
I know that Kerr retains high hopes of what the Student arena can achieve, not only for itself but for the wider world of Rugby League, on which subject I wonder how many of the players listed (I make it a not-insignificant 273) are still involved in some way in the sport that gave them what was hopefully a great experience close-on three decades ago. Quite a few, I’d like to think, although I suspect not very many.
It’s a subject that’s quite close to Abe Kerr’s heart in terms of future opportunities. Perhaps a starting point might be to try to track those players of 1996, who I’d imagine will be in their 50s now and very possibly in positions of some influence and, if need be, seek to reignite their youthful passion for Rugby League.
Finally, there’s a rumour circulating that the National Conference League, which currently contains 46 teams, is considering restructuring on a regional basis, if only in its lower divisions. The notion appears to be, at the moment, just a rumour and nothing more, but we’ll have to see what if anything emerges. What is certain is that three fixtures so far this year have failed to go ahead on the designated date – in each case with the agreement, so far as I’m aware, of the NCL’s management – and what is also a fact is that, judging by teamsheets (I see each and every one, every Saturday evening) more teams than any of us would like are short-numbered. We are in interesting times, including in Hull, where hopes of relaunching the Council Cup are on hold following the postponement of a recent meeting of clubs.