England sunk by shipping forecast
COULD this be the year for the town of Huddersfield to triumph in both football codes with the Giants lifting the Rugby League Challenge Cup, Grand Final, or both, and Town winning promotion to the Championship?
The Giants have certainly put the town on the map with their great semi-final victory over the current holders of the cup, St Helens and are currently third in the engage Super League table and definitely in the play-offs come September as the game heads to an October 10 Grand Final at Old Trafford.
Never before in four decades have they had a better chance of lifting some silverware as new Australian coach Nathan Brown and his assistant Paul Anderson have put together a real strong and talented side.
They also have a lot of quality in the squad and there were four players who sat Sunday's semi-final out, Danny Sculthorpe (cup tied), Andy Raleigh (Achilles) and fellow forwards Simon Finnigan and Matin Aspinwall who were not selected. The club is also reported to be after Halifax-born Scott Grix from Wakefield Trinity Wildcats for next season and they already have big second-rower or centre Lee Gilmour in the bag from Saints as he took a two-year deal to the one year being offered at Knowsley Road.
The scrumhalf on duty for them last Sunday against Saints, Luke Robinson, was educated at Hipperholme and Lightcliffe High School and he actually signed for Wigan as an 11-year-old and days before he walked down Stoney Lane with his satchel.
Robinson, now 25 years-old, has a 10-strong all-girl fan club led by his fiancee Laura. They wear bright yellow T-shirts and are always picked out by the television cameras after making their debut at the game's Magic Weekend at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, back in May.
Half the Robbo `Barmy Army' missed the semi-final win as they were with Laura in Australia but they will be back home this week and are having some new T-shirts done for Wembley.
I was at Warrington to witness the Giants' superb performance, their three-man tackling completely snuffing out St Helens on most occasions.
I had also been at Widnes the day before and seen a good showing from Warrington to beat Wigan but overall my money would be on Huddersfield if they can close down the half backs Lee Briers and Michael Monaghan.
Also at both games with me was former Great Britain and St Helens loose-forward Paul Sculthorpe who retired last year after a series of injuries and now works for the St Helens club and as an ambassador for the game.
He virtually followed me home as he was attending the 40th birthday party in Holmfield, Halifax, of former Brighouse Rangers and RAF RL player Damian Clayton MBE.
Warrant Officer Clayton, who is to take a two-year posting at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, has got to know Paul well through the former internationals sojourns to RAF camps to promote the game in the Armed Forces and Scully, as he is better known, has been up in a fighter jet across to the east coast and over the north sea.
Damian is currently writing a book on starting up rugby league in the RAF and engaging the other two, the Army and Royal Navy to also join in. It is now flourishing and he was decorated at Buckingham Palace some years ago.Also at the party for the former Rangers scrum-half was his proud mum Janet who lives in the Thornhill Briggs district of Brighouse, Paul Nuttall and his wife June from Lightcliffe and some more fellow Rangers players of his era, Chris Senior, Stuart Gibson and Mick Couchman.
While I was travelling back home from Widnes I was listening to our demise in the second innings of the Fourth Test Match at Headingley on the long wave station.
While those with more technical knowledge may have been able to locate Radio Five Live's Test Match Special, I had it loud and clear on the long wave until they announced at 5.55pm they were leaving the match for the shipping forecast.
It must be all of 20-30 years since I had heard that and all my Dogger Banks, Humber Estuary, Dover Straights, English Channel, Biscay, Irish Sea, Fastnet and the like came flashing back but I listened with attentive ear as you could always understand it if you knew your geography of the British Isles.
When they went back to the cricket the rot really set in. The three and a bit days instead of the full five, they were saying, cost the city of Leeds and surrounding areas some 2 million pounds, but the hardest hit would be the Headingley Carnegie Experience with the catering and their bars and the Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Finally, it all sounded more than a little boisterous on the now famous Western Terrace at Headingley and they had so wanted to calm things down this time around. The commentary team were on about people being escorted from their seats.
Its all on the Oval now.
PS. After a good draw at Southend, always a difficult place to go with the crowd right on top of you at Roots Hall, Huddersfield Town had a good 3-1 Carling Cup first round win on Tuesday night over Stockport County and with Southampton up on Saturday, they are already looking good under Lee Clark after his huge buy-in over the close season.
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Weather for Halifax
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -2 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light snow
Temperature: 0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
