Newcastle Thunder 4 North Wales Crusaders 42, attendance 220
@ Blaydon R.U.F.C.
Crow Trees Ground
Hexham Road
Swalwell
NE16 3BN
£15 Admission
No Programme.
Due to their normal venue at Gateshead International Stadium being unavailable, this was switched to the ground of Blaydon R.U.F.C. The main pitch has a 3G surface and is fully railed as well as being floodlit. It is a good 200 yards from the clubhouse/changing rooms, across the car park, with a decent stand on the far side that had seven rows of bench seating, flanked by grass banking and a partially raised area in one corner, adjacent to a tea bar.
Newcastle came into this sitting rock bottom in the league table (9th place) having lost all eleven games so far, whilst North Wales Crusaders were sixth and still in with a chance of making the play offs, despite only having won four of their ten games played. As expected, it was a high scoring away win, but Newcastle fought hard right to the end and it must only be a matter of time until they claim that must sought after first win. It was 0-20 at halftime, courtesy of four tries, two of which were converted, whilst the other two attempts both hit the post and bounced wide. Another twenty two unanswered points saw the lead increase to 0-42, before Newcastle rounded off the scoring with a try in the dying seconds.
I’d stayed overnight in County Durham after yesterday’s game at Siddal, so only had an hours drive north for this. It was quite pleasing that the journey home took under six hours, which was better than I’d been expecting, what with the heavy traffic usually encountered on a Sunday evening heading towards the M25.
The five mile drive south east from my morning game took around thirteen minutes. On arrival, you enter the car park from North Road, with the social club right in front of you. Entry to the ground was through a gate, leading to a second car park area, where you paid your admission. There are three parallel pitches, running lengthways away from the entrance, with the main pitch being the nearest, with a floodlit training pitch next to it, with another pitch beyond. There is a small covered area, which also houses a tea bar, behind the near goal end, with the pitch railed on three sides (open at the far end) and a dugout on each side. Along the left touchline there are a couple of sections of open seating, which were of little use today with it raining for almost the entire match.
The game saw 2nd in the league table hosting 7th (out of 12) and although West Hull won comfortably in the end, it was very well contested throughout. The host opened the scoring, with the added conversion making it 6-0, but Egremont hit back with a try of their own to make it 6-4. Three tries in quick succession saw West Hull increase their lead to 24-4. Egremont reduced the lead to 24-10, but a try right on halftime saw West Hull lead 30-10 at halftime and five minutes into the second half they stretched their lead to 36-10, before another converted try made it 42-10 and it was game over. Egremont did score the last two tries of the afternoon, converting one, bringing the score back to 42-20, but it was too little, too late.
The journey home was much better than when heading north yesterday and took under four hours door to door, with no problems, taking me home via the Humber Bridge, A1, M11 and M25.
I only spotted this game just before midnight last night and as it was a drive of around ten minutes from my intended afternoon game and hardly diverting off route, then it made sense to take the game in.
The Hull Division of this league consists of just six clubs, with this being 5th versus 2nd in the league table. Cottingham Tigers have won one (deducted the points since) and lost the other two they’ve played so far, whilst East Hull have a 100% winning record from their three games. The visitors were in the National Conference League as recently as 2014, having withdrawn due to a lack of funding and shortage of players and were far too strong for Cottingham. It was a real case of ‘men against boys’ and not the sort of game you want to see, especially as a neutral.
The first try for the visitors came after just two minutes and by halftime they’d run in another six to lead 0-40. The second half was more of the same, but it was good to see Cottingham get a try of their own, which was then converted, to pull it back to 6-52 twelve minutes after the break, but it was little more than a consolation. Although they kept going right to the end, they were totally overwhelmed and when East Hull scored their final try, which was again converted, to make it 6-84, the Referee blew the final whistle, two or three minutes early, not that it made much difference to the outcome.
Home to Cottingham Tigers is the Roy Waudby Sports Arena, which hosts rugby, football and cricket. The rugby pitch is in the far left hand corner when looking from the entrance, with the pitch running lengthways. It is railed on each side, with the far goal end tight to the hedge and has a dugout opposite each other at the halfway line.
When I left home at 11 o’clock this morning, I wasn’t expecting it to be seven hours later when I arrived in York, following yet another horrendous journey north, via M25, M11 and A1, which was going okay until just south of Newark, where it was total gridlock due to the police having closed the A1 in both directions, following an ‘incident’, causing absolute chaos. Still plenty of time to check in at my overnight hotel, before heading back out to the south west of the city, where 5th were hosting 11th (out of 12) in the league table.
I expected a home win, but thought it may have been by a far higher margin, based on the league positions coming into this. It only took Acorn three minutes to score their first try and by halftime they’d increased their lead to 18-0, which could have been more had they not missed two of the conversions. Thankfully, West Bowling got the first try of the second half, which was what the game needed, at least from a neutral point of view. Acorn scored a penalty to increase their lead to 20-6, with West Bowling quickly back in it when they made it 20-12 within minutes, but late on Acorn added another try to make it 24-12 and the game looked safe. A minute from time West Bowling converted another try to pull it back to 24-18 and set up an exciting finish, but they only managed a couple of sets into their final attack before the final whistle went.
Home to York Acorn is the ARL Sports & Social Club.There are three pitches here, with the main one being to the left when looking from the clubhouse/car park. It is railed off and has a dugout on opposite sides of the pitch to each other, with raised grass banking running along one side.
I’d never been to a Rugby League Challenge Cup Final before, as it is normally held on a Saturday during the football season, but today was the perfect opportunity to put that right. It was also the chance to make a first visit to the ‘new’ Wembley Stadium. I’d last been here in 1992, but that stadium was demolished in the early 2000’s and replaced by a brand new 90,000 all seated stadium, which opened in 2007. Tickets were purchased online the day before the match, via the Rugby Football League and were available for collection at the stadium. We’d opted for top tier seats, where the view was distant (that’s an understatement!), but the sight lines were excellent. Unfortunately, the ground is just too big. Well, for rugby league, that is, despite this being two of the bigger names of the sport contesting the final. Probably okay if it’s full, but with the entire tier opposite us closed and a rather pathetic crowd of under 65,000 present, there was very little atmosphere. Infact, underwhelming/disappointing would describe it perfectly.
The ticket covered all three finals taking place today. I had absolutely zero interest in arriving early enough to watch the Women’s Challenge Cup Final, which kicked off at 11.45, but would certainly have watched the 1895 Cup Final between Sheffield Eagles and Wakefield Trinity, had it been scheduled as a curtain raiser to the main event, rather than scheduled for the 17.45 start that it did have. The Challenge Cup Final was moved from the original kick off time of 15.00 to 15.07, in order to honour the passing of legendary former Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain player Rob Burrow (played in the No.7 shirt) who died this week from motor neurone disease, at the age of just 41.
Rather than drive, the train took the strain today, as far as Victoria, with the journey completed via London Underground to Wembley Park. It is then a short walk up ‘Wembley Way’ (now appears to be Olympic Way) to the stadium. Certainly not as iconic as seeing the old ‘twin towers’ and due to the vast amount of buildings around here nowadays, the stadium doesn’t look that impressive as you approach. Tickets were easily collected and there are plenty of restaurants in the area to mean avoiding buying anything inside the stadium. As you’d expect, once inside, the food/drink prices were extortionate. Never seems to stop vast numbers being happy to be ripped off though.
As for the game itself, Warrington will have been disappointed, to say the least. They just never got going, despite taking the lead with an early penalty from Josh Thewlis to lead 2-0, after both sides had a man sin binned in the opening minutes, Mike Cooper for Wigan, followed shortly afterwards by Matt Dufty for Warrington, both for high challenges. A grubber kick, from man of the match Bevan French, saw Zach Eckersley touch down for Wigan, before Harry Smith converted to make it 2-6. French then scored a try himself, getting the ball down despite facing backwards as he crossed the line and it was again converted by Smith, to see them increase the lead to 2-12, which remained the score at halftime.
Midway through the second half Wigan increased their lead to 2-18, when Liam Farrel broke down the left to score, which was again converted by Smith. Warrington briefly hit back when Dufty cut inside to score, converted by Thewlis, to pull it back to 8-18, but they never looked like adding any more points and Wigan comfortably hung on for what was an easy win, adding the Challenge Cup (record 21st time) to the World Club Challenge, Super League Leaders’ Shield and Grand Final wins in 2023, meaning they are only the third team to hold all four trophies at the same time, following Bradford Bulls in 2003 and St. Helens in 2007.
I was quite surprised that we were back on a train within minutes of the final whistle and all connections homeward went smoothly. Won’t be becoming a regular on the trains though….
Having stayed overnight in North Wales, following the North Wales Crusaders game yesterday, it made sense to do this game on the way home, especially with it being at the slightly earlier time of 2 o’clock. I came to watch Midlands Hurricanes last March, but they just played on a pitch inside the warm up track at the back of the complex, but this season they have actually moved to hosting games inside the main stadium itself. I’d actually already seen football played here, having seen West Midlands U19 beat Staffordshire U19 5-2 in an English Schools F.A. Inter County Cup match back in November 1996, but this was my first visit to see rugby league. It was opened in 1976 and has an all seated capacity of around 18,000, although only the one side was open to spectators today. It was used as a host venue for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and is the home stadium to athletics club Birchfield Harriers. Unfortunately, due to it hosting athletics, it means views to the pitch are distant, due to the running track and made worse by having to view across the long jump/triple jump pits as well, which means sitting even further back from the action.
As for the game, it was 5th versus 2nd, with Keighley looking for the win that would return them to the top of the table, having been dislodged following Oldham’s win at North Wales Crusaders yesterday evening. Hurricanes led 6-0, but were then down to 12 men, following a sin bin, which gave Keighley the opportunity to hit back to level at 6-6 and despite Hurricanes then being back to full strength, Keighley immediately hit them with another try, which was converted, before adding a drop goal in the dying seconds to go in 6-13 ahead at the break. An early second half try, again converted, brought it back to 12-13, but Keighley edged clear by adding two more converted tries to lead 12-25 and although Hurricanes managed a try of their own with ten minutes left, which once converted pulled it back to 18-25, they had left themselves too much to do and the visitors deservedly held on to take the points.
As with yesterday’s game, the crowd announced was ridiculously inflated. I’d done a count, which is easy when everyone is on one side and the actual number present was 214 fewer than claimed.
North Wales Crusaders 24 Oldham 25, attendance 756 (official) 588 (actual)
@ Eirias Stadium (Stadiwm CSM)
Abergele Road
Colwyn Bay
LL29 7SP
£15 Admission
No Programme.
Since first watching a North Wales Crusaders home game at Wrexham F.C. (The Racecourse Ground) back on 28th June 2015, I’ve seen them play home matches at Queensway Stadium, Wrexham (June 2017), as well as ‘one off’ temporary venues of Nant Conwy RUFC (June 2023) and a week later at Chester RUFC. Today I finally got round to visiting their current home ground, Eirias Stadium, where they’ve been based since 2021. Capacity here is 6,080, although only one side of the ground is open to spectators for Crusaders games, with covered seating in the centre, flanked by open terracing. Unfortunately, there is a running track around the pitch, so the action is distant, which is made worse by the stanchions of the stand roof, as well as the floodlight pylons, blocking the view and it is an awful place to watch a game at. There is a decent car park here, which was surprisingly free and once inside there was hot food available (burgers, hot dogs) and beer and soft drinks, but surprisingly no hot drinks.
The match was 7th versus 2nd in the league table, which looked like being an upset right up until the final seconds of the match. Crusaders were 12-0 up after seventeen minutes, before Oldham managed to pull it back to 12-4 half an hour in and then 12-8 just before halftime, having missed both conversions that would have seen them draw level. A minute into the second half Crusaders added a third try and converted it to increase their lead to 18-8. Oldham then had a man sin binned, during which time Crusaders scored another try, again converted, to lead 24-8 and looked to be heading to victory. However, this was to be their last score of the match and once Oldham were back to their full number, the tide began to turn. With fourteen minutes left they scored a converted try to pull it back to 24-14 and then added another, again converted, to make it 24-20. In the dying minutes they levelled the scores at 24-24, but missed the conversion to go in front, but then, with the last kick of the game, they won it 24-25 with a drop goal from Danny Craven, which was certainly well received by the 200 plus away fans and the win takes them top of the table, for 24 hours at least, with this mornings leaders Keighley Cougars not playing until tomorrow.
The crowd here today was decent, but to see the official attendance given as 756 is laughable.
Doncaster Toll Bar 44 Ossett Trinity Tigers 12, attendance 136
@ Prospect Road
Toll Bar
DN5 0QP
No Admission or Programme.
With no unvisited football grounds within reach this afternoon, I had opted for a rugby league match and was parked up about fifteen minutes before the scheduled kick off. There was no rush though, as the Ossett team didn’t arrive until about ten minutes later, having been held up in traffic and the kick off had been put back half an hour. There is a car park here, if you wanted to risk getting blocked in, but no problem parking on the road outside. The clubhouse/changing room building are at the near goal end, with the pitch is through a gate, running lengthways away from here. Fully railed with one dugout on each side at the halfway line.
The match pitted top of the Premier Division versus 5th in Division 1, in what was the league’s cup competition and was the first game I’d seen in this league. It was no worse than lower level National Conference games I’ve seen and was competitive throughout, although the scoreline does look rather one sided, which suggests otherwise. Ossett led 0-6 and 6-12 in a very good first half, both times pegged back, before an unconverted try saw Doncaster go into the break with a narrow 16-12 lead. An early second half try put the result beyond doubt, as the higher level team ran in 28 unanswered points to take their place in the final with a resounding 44-12 win.
Another Challenge Cup match for me today and a long slog north to the outskirts of Wigan, the ground visible from the M6, on the right, as you approach J26 to exit and only a couple of minutes from there. The ground is at the end of Bankes Avenue, where there is a car park at the entrance (I parked in the road to avoid the chance of getting blocked in) and once through the entrance gate you entered the clubhouse and then the pitch, which runs widthways in front and has a slight end to end slope. It is fully railed with a plastic barrier and there are dugouts on the far side, as well as three floodlight pylons on that side only, whilst hard standing is on two and a bit sides. The only cover here is a small overhang on the front of the clubhouse.
The match was the reigning North West Counties champions versus National Conference League Premier Division. Orrell had beaten Haresfinch in the first round, whilst York had only come into the competition at this stage. I hoped this would be close and wasn’t disappointed, as there’s nothing worse than a one sided thrashing in rugby league. It didn’t look like it would turn out that way though, as York went over to score the first try after just 37 seconds and converted the kick to make it 0-6. There had been no further points added when a bad injury occurred after 35 minutes 2 seconds to a York player. He was unable to be moved and an ambulance was called. It arrived about half an later and after a break in play, we were back underway and completed the remaining minutes of the half with no further score, followed by a quick halftime, of only a couple of minutes, during which the players stayed out on the pitch.
York made a flying start again, converting a try to open up a 0-12 lead just two minutes in. Four minutes later Orrell went over for a try of their own, which was converted to make it 6-12. Two more tries for the visitors, one converted, saw them extend their lead in the next ten minutes to 6-22 and the win looked secured. Orrell did convert another try on the hour mark to make it 12-22, but that was the last score of the day.
The game ended at 16.22 and was finished without having to turn on the floodlights.
Hammersmith Hills Hoists 32 West Bowling 10, attendance 95
@ Chiswick R.U.F.C.
Don Mason Drive
Chiswick
London
W4 2SH
No Admission or Programme.
I arrived here about 50 minutes before kick off. Chiswick R.U.F.C.’s reserve team were in the last few minutes of their match, hence my game having a 5 o’clock start. I was surprised there was no admission charge or even a programme produced. Perhaps they couldn’t be bothered. It was a pretty poor turnout for such a big game, with about twenty of the crowd coming down from Yorkshire with the visitors. I had seen Hammersmith play a home game back in June 2011, when they played at Twyford Avenue Sports Ground, in Acton, West London, but they now appear to have relocated here to Chiswick. It’s a better facility, but I’m not really a fan of watching rugby on a synthetic surface.
Hammersmith Hills Hoists were formed in 2008 by Australian expats and play in the Southern Conference League, where they are the reigning champions, whilst West Bowling are in the National Conference League Premier Division. It was an excellent game, although it was spoiled by the constant fighting that occurred at far too regular intervals and it was hard to keep up with who was being sent off and who was just getting a ten minute sin bin, such was the frequency of mass brawls breaking out. It certainly didn’t help matters with the two kits being so similar either as it was hard to tell exactly who was hitting who! The game finished with yet another punch up in the centre circle and the Referee was brandishing red and yellow cards to both teams, but no idea who was getting what. Sadly, no match report has been posted anywhere by either side, which doesn’t help matters.
West Bowling had a man sent off after just twelve minutes and soon trailed 12-0. Hammersmith had a man sin binned after half an hour and within a minute West Bowling scored a try to pull it back to 12-4, but a converted try for Hammersmith saw them lead 18-4 by halftime. An early try, which was converted, saw West Bowling reduce the arrears to 18-10, but that was to be their last points of the day. Hammersmith ran in three more tries, but only converted one of them, to comfortably lead 32-10 and surprisingly there were no more points added in the final nineteen minutes.
