Rugby League

League 1

Saturday 8th June 2019

Kick Off 15.00

West Wales Raiders 12 Workington Town 58, attendance 100

@ Stebonheath Park

Penallt Road

Llanelli

SA15 1EY

£10 Admission

£2 Programme available, didn’t bother buying.

I was surprised it was as far back as 24th November 2000 that I had first visited Stebonheath Park, for football, when I saw Llanelli 1 Barry Town 6 in a League Of Wales fixture. These days it is also home to the top rugby league club of South Wales, who were re branded as West Wales Raiders when they moved here. I don’t know how, or why, these clubs from outside the traditional heartland of rugby league bother though. A crowd of just 100 is pathetic for a national level three match and not all will have paid. It doesn’t help when the team are rubbish. They had lost all 9 games coming into this and the only reason that they are not bottom of the league table is due to Keighley Cougars starting with a minus points penalty, although having won five games already, the gap is now just a point between them and Raiders.

I thought today might be a game that Raiders had a chance of winning, as Workington had only won 4 of their 9 matches so far. It wasn’t even close. When former New Zealand and Tonga international Fui Fui Moi Moi went over for the visitors second try after eleven minutes it was already game over. By halftime it was 0-28. Workington converted another try, before Raiders converted a try of their own to make it 6-34 twelve minutes into the second half. Three more converted tries from the visitors made it 6-52, before Raiders scored again, but almost immediately Workington restored the gap to round it off for an easy 12-58 win.

Apparently, it had taken Workington nine hours to make the trip from Cumbria, having left on Friday and having had an overnight stop en route. According to their twitter account, the team coach arrived back at Derwent Park at 02.26 on Sunday morning!

Rugby League

West of England League

Saturday 1st June 2019

Kick Off 14.30

Oxford Cavaliers 50 Cheltenham Phoenix 22, attendance 70

@ Merton Village Hall

Main Street

Merton

OX25 2NJ

No Admission or Programme.

With the football season in England now over, it was a chance to watch some Rugby League. I hadn’t watched a game at this level for quite a number of years. The main problem at this level is that it is not the greatest quality and it is very unreliable as to whether the match will actually take place, or indeed, where it will actually be played. No such problems today though, as both clubs had tweeted about the fixture and as neither had lost yet this season, then there was a very good chance that I’d get a game in.

Oxford dominated the first half, going into the break 26-0 up. When they increased the lead to 32-0 ten minutes into the second half it looked like it might become a bit of a procession, but Cheltenham scored the next two tries to make more of a game of it. Oxford went over for two more tries, before Cheltenham added two more themselves to pull it back to 44-22, before one more converted try for the hosts rounded off the scoring in the final minute.

Rugby League

National Conference League

Division 1

Saturday 16th June 2018

Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.31

Thornhill Trojans 54 Pilkington Recs 0,  attendance 240

@ Thornhill Sports & Community Centre

EdgeTop Road

Thornhill

Dewsbury

WF12 0DP

No Admission

£2 Programme, 20 pages.

Most sports do not make great viewing when a match is one sided, but rugby league can be as bad as it gets. With this being 2nd versus 7th in the league table it looked like it might be a reasonable match, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Pilkingtons were pathetic in every department and Thornhill didn’t have to do a lot to win this with ease. It is these sort of ‘non contest’ matches that are helping the sport to die a slow death and it was certainly not worth spending close on 8 hours driving on the M25 and M1 to see such a poor product.

Australia

T20 Big Bash League Cricket

Wednesday 20th December 2017

First Ball 18.40

Brisbane Heat won by 15 runs,  attendance 27,455

Brisbane Heat 206-7 Batted First

Jimmy Pierson c: Hastings b: Beer 1

Brendon McCullum  c: Maxwell b: Stoinis 40

Sam Heazlett c: Hastings b: Beer 14

Joe Burns c: Dunk b: Stoinis 50

Alex Ross c: Pietersen b: Boland 51

Ben Cutting : run out 35

Mark Steketee c: Gulbis b: Stoinis 0

Shadab Khan : not out 0

Josh Lalor : not out 6

Melbourne Stars 191-6

Ben Dunk  c:Swebson b: Lalor 0

Luke Wright b: Khan 19

Kevin Pietersen c: McCullum b: Doggett 10

Glenn Maxwell c: Doggett b: Khan 8

Marcus Stoinis : run out 99

James Faulkner : not out 47

Evan Gulbis c: Doggett b: Steketee 0

John Hastings : not out 0

@ The Gabba

Vulture Street

Woolloongabba

Brisbane

QLD 4102

AUD $42 Admission + AUD $5.50 Fees.

No Programme.

This game hadn’t been on the agenda. It was only when watching the sports news on television that I saw that the season had opened with the Sydney derby the night before. Reading the newspaper at breakfast, I noticed that Brisbane were due to open their season tonight, when they were entertaining Melbourne, including former England batsman Kevin Pietersen. Apparently, Pietersen was public enemy number one in Brisbane, following derogatory comments about the city on social media. The report also stated that there were 5,000 tickets remaining, so we called by the ground and picked up a couple. We could have waited, as there were plenty of empty seats in the end and it would have also saved on the booking fee, although the match ticket allowed free travel on public transport to and from the match. As there is no rail link nearby, this meant travelling by bus, which was fine going, but total chaos afterwards, mainly due to poor organisation.

The Gabba derives it’s name from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. It is the ground that is used for the opening match of The Ashes test series versus England and has been home to Queensland Cricket since 1896. It also hosts the Brisbane Lions Australian Rules Football team. Capacity for cricket is 42,000 and it must be one of the few, if not only, stadiums of the world that has a swimming pool as part of the viewing area.

As I am not a great fan of cricket, this version of the game is ideal, although it seemed odd that as well as there being no programme, they didn’t even bother putting the Melbourne team on the screens. It is far better to see the entire match in three and a half hours, than to go through the tedious bore of five days ‘action’ and still have no winner !

As for Mr Pietersen……….he was roundly booed every time he was shown on the big screens and as he trudged off, having been caught out for a pathetic 10 runs, the stadium announcer said “never mind Mr Pietersen, get back to twitter” !!!

Friendly Match

Day 2 (of 3)

Wednesday 20th September 2017

10.30 Start

Yorkshire 2nd XI v Durham 2nd XI

@ Scarborough Cricket Club

North Marine Road

Scarborough

YO12 7TJ

Free Admission

£1 Official Scorecard, 4 pages.

I am not really a cricket fan, but with a full day to kill before an evening football match, this fitted the bill perfectly. Even better when it was free !

I had only ever been to one cricket match before…….New South Wales ‘SpeedBlitz Blues’ v England, played at Sydney Cricket Ground, Monday 13th November 2006 in a warm up to The Ashes. That was also Day 2 and played in a place beginning with the letter S, so at least I was continuing a theme….

Scarborough Cricket Ground has been hosting games since 1863 and has a current capacity of 11,500. The two ‘ends’ here are known as the Peasholm Park End and The Trafalgar Square End.  Nowadays, it still hosts Yorkshire home games, when they are not at Headingly, and has previously hosted England One Day Internationals versus New Zealand and The West Indies, albeit back in the 1970’s. The record attendance here is 22,946 when Yorkshire hosted Derbyshire in 1947.

After a little over 4 hours here, it was time for a late lunch, before heading off for my evening football fix in County Durham. Yorkshire had batted all day and were just over 50 runs short of Durhams total as I headed for the exit.

Rugby Football League

Super League

Friday 21st July 2017

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.03

Leigh Centurions 25 Salford Red Devils 0,  attendance 7,002

@ Leigh Sports Village Stadium

Sale Way

Leigh

Greater Manchester

WN7 4GX

£20 Admission

£3 Programme, 84 pages.

Leigh Sports Village Stadium was opened in late 2008 and has a capacity of just over 12,000. I had been here previously to watch football on 21st April 2009 ( Leigh Genesis 2 Bradford Park Avenue 1, attendance 301, Northern Premier League, Premier Division). Genesis played here until they folded in 2011.

I had seen Leigh play at their former home, Hilton Park, back on 18th March 1990, in a Division 1 match versus Widnes, where they drew 20-20 in front of a 4,848 crowd.

Tonights game had a very unexpected result as bottom of the table beat 4th place in the final regular season match before the play offs.  It was 18-0 at halftime and incredibly it took 35 minutes of the second half to add to the scoring when Leigh kicked a drop goal. Shortly afterwards they scored a breakaway try, which was converted, to complete the scoring. More importantly, it lifted them off the bottom of the table, replaced by Widnes Vikings.

Leigh are yet another club who vastly add numbers to make it look like they are well supported, as there looked to be fewer than 5,000 present, despite the total they announced.

The 146th Open Golf Championship

Day 2

Friday 21st July 2017

Tee Off 06.35

@ Royal Birkdale Golf Club

Waterloo Road

Southport

PR8 2LX

£80 Admission

£15 Park & Ride

£10 Programme * (didn’t bother at that price)

*Free guide and tee times available, plus free course maps.

Birkdale Golf Club was founded in 1889 and was awarded ‘Royal’ status in 1951. Birkdale was nominated as the venue for the 1940 Open Championship, but this was cancelled due to the outbreak of WW2 in 1939. The Open Championship was finally staged here in 1954 and this year is the tenth time it has hosted it. The Curtis Cup, Walker Cup, Women’s British Open and the Ryder Cup have also been held here.

The previous Open Championship winners here are Peter Thompson (twice), Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, Mark O’Meara and Padraig Harrington. The latter two were playing today.

Today consisted of 52 games, each having 3 players. The first group set off at 06.35, with the last trio heading out at 16.16. We saw parts of 20/52 games. Having arrived on the course at 07.00, expecting to get an absolute soaking, if the totally wrong BBC weather forecast was to believed, we made it through until 1605 before the rain arrived, but we had planned to head off around that time anyway. By the time we were driving away from the course, the rain was absolutely hammering down.

Golf isn’t really the best sport to watch ‘live’ and there is no atmosphere whatsoever out on the course. Rather like Formula 1, it is best watched on television from the comfort of your armchair.

Despite not being a big golf fan, at least of the 60 players we saw in action, I had actually heard of quite a few of them. Recognising any of them in the street however………….

Ernie Els, Martin Kaymer, Zach Zohnson, Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott, Paul Casey, Matt Kuchar, Paul Lawrie, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari, Marc Leishman, Bubba Watson, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Henrik Stenson, Jordan Spieth, Louis Oosthuizen and Justin Rose were the ones I knew of in advance.

Rugby Football League

National Championship

Sunday 16th July 2017

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.03

Swinton Lions 20 Dewsbury Rams 42,  attendance 1,002

@ Sale R.U.F.C.

Heywood Road

Sale

M33 3WB

£17 Admission

£3 Programme, 32 pages.

Swinton have been playing their home matches here at Sale R.U.F.C. since 2016. The stadium opened in 1905 and following the move of Swinton here, a new General Safety Certificate was required, resulting in the 5,400 capacity being reduced to the current 3,387.

This now takes the number of home venues I have seen Swinton play at to six, having previously seen them at Station Road (12.1.92), Gigg Lane, Bury FC (15.11.92), Edge Hall Road, Orrell RUFC (9.6.00), Moor Lane, Salford City FC (8.9.02) and Park Lane, Sedgley Park RUFC(1.2.04).

The game itself was a relegation battle, as second bottom hosted fourth bottom. Despite getting the first try, Swinton went in at the break 14-24 down. Dewsbury went over to increase their lead to 14-30, before Swinton converted a try of their own to stay in it at 20-30, but the comeback was short lived as Dewsbury added two more converted tries.

Dewsbury are now safe from the drop, and despite this defeat, Swinton could still overhaul third bottom Oldham, who are just one point above them, as they travel to bottom of the table Bradford Bulls in their final match.

Rugby Football League

National League 1

Sunday 25th June 2017

Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.33

North Wales Crusaders 36 South Wales Ironmen 12,  attendance 462

@ Queensway Stadium

Queensway

Wrexham

LL13 8UH

£10 Admission

£2.50 Programme, 30 pages.

This was pretty dire and what you would expect from 4th bottom v 2nd bottom. Ironmen were surprisingly ahead 0-6, pegged back to 6-6, but went in at halftime 6-12 up. In the second half they were absolutely rubbish and never looked remotely like adding any further points.

Queensway Stadium is about as bad a venue you could possibly visit as a spectator. Perhaps that is a factor in why they get such poor crowds, as despite what they claim, the attendance was little more than 300. Both sections of seats are at least 50 yards from the pitch and viewing is also across three jumping pits as well as the running track. There is a small section of open seating on the far side, but they are no longer usable !

I had previously been here for football, on January 28th 2006, when I saw Queens Park 1 Ruthin Town 0 in the Cymru Alliance.

Rugby Football League

National Championship

Wednesday 21st June 2017

Kick Off 20.00. On Time !

Oldham 16 Dewsbury Rams 20,   attendance 575

@ Stalybridge Celtic F.C.

Bower Fold

Mottram Road

Stalybridge

SK15 2RT

£15 Admission

£2.50 Programme* From original game that was postponed on 5th March, with a new wrap around cover. Didn’t bother buying something three and a half months out of date !

Bower Fold has been home to Stalybridge Celtic F.C. since 1909 and hosted games in the Football League for two seasons when Celtic were members of the newly formed Third Division North in 1921. I had previously been here to watch football (Stalybridge Celtic 1 Tranmere Rovers 0, Pre Season Friendly) on 11th August 1990, but the ground has undergone a complete transformation since then, including replacing the old wooden main stand. Current capacity is 6,500, of which 1,200 is seated. There was a ‘one off’ Rugby League Challenge Cup tie played here in the 90’s, but it didn’t host rugby league regularly until Oldham moved here in 2016. This now takes the number of venues I have seen Oldham play home matches at to eight, following Watersheddings, Hyde United FC, Oldham Athletic FC, Ashton United FC, Blackpool FC, Whitebank Stadium and Manchester Regional Athletics Arena.

This was 9th v 11th and a vital must win game for both teams. Oldham led 6-0, were pegged back to 6-6, then went in front again to go in at halftime 12-6 up. Dewsbury levelled at 12-12, before two penalties had Oldham back in front at 16-12. In stoppage time, which was mainly due to an Oldham player injury, Dewsbury converted a try under the posts to nick it, before adding a penalty on the final hooter to seal the win.