The Rugby Football League’s reminder to amateur clubs that no one other than players and first-aiders is allowed on the pitch, aside from when requested to be there by the referee, is certainly timely, given the horror stories that emerged in soccer last week.
There’s no place in sport for players or coaching staff being attacked by spectators, and it’s a pity that the RFL feels it necessary to issue a warning at all.
Not that, if we’re honest, it’s anything new. We all like to hark back to supposedly ‘golden ages’ of better behaviour but anyone who has sifted through old newspapers at their local library, as I have when cobbling together several books and histories on Rugby League, is quickly disabused of the notion, including in society as a whole.
It wasn’t uncommon, certainly in the rugby union and Northern Union eras and, to a degree, in the 1920s, for match officials to be surrounded and even kicked by unhappy spectators.
It’s harder to control crowds at amateur level, of course, certainly if there’s no pitch perimeter fencing in place. That’s when spectators can, quite naturally, forget themselves and spill over the touchline to see what is happening further down the field. They shouldn’t do that but you can see how it occurs, in fact I’ve done it often enough myself. Having strayed over the whitewash, though, they should quickly retrace their steps and I’ve aways felt sorry for touchjudges who, almost inevitably, tend to give up on trying to keep people back from the touchline.
Let’s hope that the RFL’s missive has its effect. Certainly the threat of fines should concentrate minds, although it would be helpful if Super League outfits could set an example. I may be wrong but it looked to me, during one of last week’s televised games, that a member of one club’s coaching staff seemed to be on the pitch a number of times for no discernible reason other than, I suspect, to, well…coach.
Meanwhile the RFL also reminded clubs and other grassroots bodies that its 2022 Community Raffle is up and running, and published a table of the current ‘top ten’ supporting outfits.
It’s an interesting list and illustrates, to me, just how proactive and enthusiastic those outside the traditional heartlands can be.
For example, two clubs from Liverpool (the Lions and the Lizards) are in there, which says a great deal for the enthusiasm and commitment in both camps, apart from begging the question as to why that great city is viewed as being beyond Rugby League’s heartlands. In fact, perhaps I’m wrong to describe it as such, although Liverpool does seem to be largely untapped. A touch similarly, London Skolars are listed, again proving that it’s not necessarily our game’s ‘big guns’ that set the lead.
Then there’s Team Colostomy UK, who played the British Asian Rugby Association yesterday prior to the Batley Bulldogs v London Broncos Betfred Championship fixture. Team Colostomy UK, which successfully illustrates that having a stoma need not prevent anyone from enjoying physical activity, regularly feature in these pages, largely due to the tireless work of their energetic and imaginative Fundraising & Campaigns Manager Giovanni Cinque. The RFL’s Community Raffle is an opportunity that Giovanni was certainly not going to let slip!
On the subject of letting things slip, though, what exactly is the RFL (or possibly the Yorkshire Junior League) playing at by having a full list of fixtures on the weekend of the Betfred Challenge Cup Final, including on the day itself?
This week’s programme is as full as it’s been this year, which I find astonishing.
I’m conscious that this may be driven by the clubs themselves, but if that’s the case they may only be following a lead set by RFL-run competitions which, over the last decade or two, have sanctioned – even pushed for – games on a day which was once a no-go area, when attention focused on what was Rugby League’s biggest occasion.
There’s concern, in some quarters, about the size of the attendance at Tottenham on Saturday. Well, allowing fixtures on the same day, and within the following 24 hours, hardly helps the cause, does it? While the Yorkshire Junior League certainly stands out, other leagues are also playing games here and there. Hats off to such as the North West Youth League, which is taking time out to allow players, coaches, administrators and parents to tootle down to London.
One person who, I suspect, will totally agree with me is Alan Parker, a man who has given so much to all levels of Rugby League in the city of Hull for decades. Alan will, I’m sure, be at the Spurs ground on Saturday while, last Saturday, he was rightly feted at half-time, during the Hull KR v Catalans Dragons Super League game, when he was presented with the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Rugby League Community Award 2022’, in partnership with the Robins and Hudgell Solicitors. It was richly deserved, I can tell you, having witnessed his excellent voluntary work over very many years, and he has now earned £1,000 to be donated to an amateur outfit of his choice.
In passing, I’m certain that Alan Parker will totally approve of the RFL’s warning over spectator encroachments. So too, I think, would my old friend Keith Pickering, who sadly passed away last Tuesday evening after having battled cancer with his trademark good humour and courage.
I knew Keith through our joint involvement with, firstly, Methley Monarchs and, secondly, Methley Royals (he’d also been involved with the previous side, simply known as Methley) and he was very proud to have been the Royals’ chair during the club’s most successful years.
Keith was possibly even prouder to have played for Lock Lane in one of that great club’s best periods (which is saying something). A free-scoring and robust winger who typified many Rugby League players by being very physical on the pitch and the complete gentleman off it, his best memory was of facing – and containing – the Great Britain international Stewart Wright when the Castleford outfit met Wigan in the 1973-74 Challenge Cup (when amateur involvement was by qualification and therefore perhaps generally more valued).
Lock Lane held a minute’s silence in Keith Pickering’s honour prior to Saturday’s National Conference League fixture with West Hull and paid due homage in their special programme. It was a fitting and typically dignified tribute to a man who will be sadly missed.
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