Category Archives: rugby league

The Daily Thought

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If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?

I needed something to get me going so I thought I’d try the daily thought as it’s a subject that was once very close to my heart.

I’ve been associated with several start-ups, particularly in the field of rugby league (which is the minority rugby code in the UK, and often tries to expand). There is often more thought given to stuff like this rather than funding and other basic building blocks and there was one local start-up that involved a name, loan of a venue, money raised for shirts, a couple of matches (hosted by Nottingham Outlaws) and . . . oblivion. I told him not to let the kids take their match shirts home. It’s a pain washing the kit but at least you get to keep it together.  After the two matches they never did get get the team, or the shirts, back together.

You have to be very careful with this sort of thing, as Coventry Bears found. Now, I like Coventry Bears. But having said that, I also have a few old scores to settle. Fortunately my parents brought me up better than that. After an internal struggle I am merely going to point out that a bear is a big fierce creature, well-suited to being the mascot of a rugby team. It is also, for those of you who have led a sheltered life, a name for a particular subsection of gay culture.

According to Wikipedia “a bear is a larger and often hairier man who projects an image of rugged masculinity”.

It probably tells you something about my basic attitudes that I found it funny that Coventry Rugby League club was sharing its name with a group of people that produced some interesting internet search results. (Sorry if it offends anyone, but I was born in the 1950s and find amusement in things which are today found to be insensitive).

Anyway, there you go. I don’t know what I’d do about colours and mascots, but I do know that I’d do a thorough internet search before I decided anything.

Outlaws Play the Ball

Nottingham Outlaws RLFC – founded 1999. The name is or has also used by a BMX Club, a Cricket Club, a camera club, an ice hockey team a speedway team and is now in use for county badminton too. I’m not entirely sure who used it first, though I do note that two of the later users of the name seem to have cunningly omitted details of their earlier names to imply that they used it before we did.

Views expressed in this blog, are my own and do not represent the views of other individuals or organisations that may be mentioned or depicted. Just thought I’d better mention that.

 

Another day, another defeat

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Nottingham Outlaws played Beverley on Saturday, coming off a run of nine defeats. I got there ten minutes after kick off and they were already ten points down, having been undone twice by cross field kicks.

The trouble is that the lads from Yorkshire, even the weightier ones (and at least two of them were built like competitive eaters rather than athletes), grow up with Rugby League, but many of our team tend to be tactically naive. As you can see from the table, they can score tries, despite this. Unfortunately, we can’t stop the opposition from scoring, and often help them by dropping the ball.

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Despite the run of defeats we are still putting a team out every week. That’s more than you can say for one of the other teams, which has now dropped out.

I’ll leave it to the match report to give details. If you think it’s critical of the referee, I assure you it’s mild compared to the comments made by people from both sides on Saturday.

 

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I don’t normally have a go at refs as they do a tough job and there would be no games without them. Despite having qualified as a ref in both codes I am actually incapable of thinking, seeing, running, deciding and whistling at the same time and admire anyone who can.

However, the referee did not have a great day, failing to play advantage, missing several infringements and penalising several imagined infringements. He also made a mess of the timekeeping.  To be fair though, I have seen far worse.

It was good in parts (we led twice), it only rained part of the time and everyone likes a good moan at the ref. Plus we got a chance to build character, even if we would have preferred to win.

And that’s about it – just another average Saturday for the amateur sportsmen of Britain.

 

 

 

Rain, Rugby League and the Royal Artillery

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Yes, it’s that time of year again, the opening of the summer Rugby League season. In theory it doesn’t really start for Nottingham Outlaws until 1st April when they play their first game in the Yorkshire Men’s League. It’s going to be quite a test, and interesting to see. We’ve beaten Yorkshire teams before, but this is a step up in class so we will have to see what happens.

Today it was the seventh Heroes Trophy match, an annual fixture against the Royal Artillery. It marked our fourth win in seven years, and was an excellent match despite the wintry conditions. I say “our” though, of course, I confined my part in the match to a spot of gentle supporting from the sidelines.

Obviously I shared some of the team’s discomfort, as it was wet and cold, and I didn’t get a cup of tea for over 80 minutes, though I didn’t have to cope with the hostile intentions of an 18 stone Gunner.

Nottingham Outlaws in action
Man of the Match, sporting an excellent line in beards
Outlaws Play the Ball
Nottingham Outlaws v Royal Artillery RL

As I said to Number 1 son, who was visiting for the weekend, a summer season is all very well, but it does depend on the weather cooperating. It wasn’t a great day for photography: there wasn’t enough light for decent photographs, and water on the lens really didn’t help either.

Roll on summer…