Well there you go, the Engage Super League comes to an end and St Helens come in first - again! For the fourth year running! Woohoo!
Another trophy added to winning the Carnegie Challenge Cup last week - For the third year running! Woohoo!
The places for the play-offs were decided on the very last weekend of the season, good for rugby league but very bad for the nerves!
Warrington finish in sixth after getting hammered by Huddersfield (in a fantastic game) so they have to travel to the south of France for their first play-off game. If Huddersfield had played like that all season they would have finished in the top three.
I love seeing Warrington lose - okay, I should like to see Wigan lose (being our 'derby' team) most but the Warrington players always look like they're going to cry (:0) They're a strange club, they panic more the closer to the try-line they get and for some reason the fans worship Kevin Penny even though there's two wingers and he isn't even the best one! The other winger, Chris Riley, should be receiving the Young Player of the Year Award. He'll quite happily run the ball into the forwards (big guys!) of the opposition but Penny acts like he's carrying hot coals, he can't get rid of the ball quickly enough!
Check out the Engage Super League website - pay particular attention to the gallery. Man, it's a hard game!
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Manchester Gay Pride
Bleedin' hell, today was a strange day!
I headed up to Manchester to buy a 35mm lens not realising that it was Gay Pride, so I picked a place in the crowd between the God-botherers and the parade. It's the most fun place to be with the interaction of them both. The bible-bashers were in full flow telling the crowd they're all going to hell with their stories of Soddom and Gomorrah, so in a gap in their speech I cheered (not because I believe in their crap, mind) and the cheer seemed to be contagious, we didn't hear another word from them, not for want of trying, but from the jeers of the crowd as we all broke into a rendition of, 'I am what I am.'
I then got tapped-up! By a black guy from Widnes called Valentino! Let's just say that people don't get called Valentino in Widnes. Anyway, I told him I was hetro and fancied the arse off his sister but that didn't seem to bother him. What a bloody predetor! He even asked if I'd let him buy me a ticket to get me into the party but I wasn't having that hanging over me. I'm not giong to be indebted to somebody as flirty and forward as him!
After the parade passed someone in my adopted group opened the safety-gates and we all jumped through. The police were swift to act but not before about twenty of us were walking down the road right behind the last float, and we walked behind it all the way to the Canal Street compound. People were chearing us all the way down the last 400m stretch and we all just waved back as if we were part of the parade. I also think I'm going to be on TV in all of my gatecrashing glory as there was a Granada News team there! There's going to be hell at work on tuesday if I am!
I can't wait to develop the photos.
I headed up to Manchester to buy a 35mm lens not realising that it was Gay Pride, so I picked a place in the crowd between the God-botherers and the parade. It's the most fun place to be with the interaction of them both. The bible-bashers were in full flow telling the crowd they're all going to hell with their stories of Soddom and Gomorrah, so in a gap in their speech I cheered (not because I believe in their crap, mind) and the cheer seemed to be contagious, we didn't hear another word from them, not for want of trying, but from the jeers of the crowd as we all broke into a rendition of, 'I am what I am.'
I then got tapped-up! By a black guy from Widnes called Valentino! Let's just say that people don't get called Valentino in Widnes. Anyway, I told him I was hetro and fancied the arse off his sister but that didn't seem to bother him. What a bloody predetor! He even asked if I'd let him buy me a ticket to get me into the party but I wasn't having that hanging over me. I'm not giong to be indebted to somebody as flirty and forward as him!
After the parade passed someone in my adopted group opened the safety-gates and we all jumped through. The police were swift to act but not before about twenty of us were walking down the road right behind the last float, and we walked behind it all the way to the Canal Street compound. People were chearing us all the way down the last 400m stretch and we all just waved back as if we were part of the parade. I also think I'm going to be on TV in all of my gatecrashing glory as there was a Granada News team there! There's going to be hell at work on tuesday if I am!
I can't wait to develop the photos.
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Richard Silverwood's undies
Only half way through the game between St Helens and Warrington and I have to ask, is the ref, Richard Silverwood, wearing blue and yellow underwear?
Warrington have offloaded after a completed tackle and then gone on to touch down, there have been three obstructions in two back-to-back sets and he's allowing the tackled Warrington players to hold on and calling obstruction of the play the ball against St Helens tacklers.
Now I know I'm a St Helens fan, so this could be viewed as biased, but I do have eyes. It's hard enough knowing that St Helens are really shite when it rains without Silverwood adding to things.
Speaking of which, can we get a roof on our new stadium please? Oh, and can we not call it the GPW Recruitment Stadium? 'Knowsley Road' will always be known as 'Knowsley Road' so why not give the new entrace the same name, it is, after all, known to most rugby-fans the world over.
*edit after second half*
Whoooooo! St Helens won, eventually. Warrington were winning with just four minutes to go when Lee Gilmour, of St Helens' second-row scored for the draw. Sean Long scored a drop-goal from forty yards out with just seconds to go. Heh, and Lee Briers nearly cried. Warrington are desperate to beat St Helens, seeing it as the final hurdle to be considered a great team, but the amount of money they've spent this season they must have gone over the salary-cap.
I still think Richard Silverwood is an asshole, though. His crap calls died down a little in the second half but every fifty-fifty decision went against St Helens. He should be banned from reffing for a couple of weeks.
www.superleague.co.uk/
Warrington have offloaded after a completed tackle and then gone on to touch down, there have been three obstructions in two back-to-back sets and he's allowing the tackled Warrington players to hold on and calling obstruction of the play the ball against St Helens tacklers.
Now I know I'm a St Helens fan, so this could be viewed as biased, but I do have eyes. It's hard enough knowing that St Helens are really shite when it rains without Silverwood adding to things.
Speaking of which, can we get a roof on our new stadium please? Oh, and can we not call it the GPW Recruitment Stadium? 'Knowsley Road' will always be known as 'Knowsley Road' so why not give the new entrace the same name, it is, after all, known to most rugby-fans the world over.
*edit after second half*
Whoooooo! St Helens won, eventually. Warrington were winning with just four minutes to go when Lee Gilmour, of St Helens' second-row scored for the draw. Sean Long scored a drop-goal from forty yards out with just seconds to go. Heh, and Lee Briers nearly cried. Warrington are desperate to beat St Helens, seeing it as the final hurdle to be considered a great team, but the amount of money they've spent this season they must have gone over the salary-cap.
I still think Richard Silverwood is an asshole, though. His crap calls died down a little in the second half but every fifty-fifty decision went against St Helens. He should be banned from reffing for a couple of weeks.
www.superleague.co.uk/
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Guitar Hero
Activision are pure genius!
In Blackpool yesterday there was a big stage and competition called 'Guitar Hero on Tour' using Guitar Hero III on the Xbox. I was in awe. I bought it today. Sadly, I'm still in the back o' beyond using a PS2 but don't buy/play enough games to warrant the cash-splurge an Xbox requires.
It's strange how it's harder to play songs you don't know, you wouldn't think it mattered.
Anyway, pure genius. Nuff said.
In Blackpool yesterday there was a big stage and competition called 'Guitar Hero on Tour' using Guitar Hero III on the Xbox. I was in awe. I bought it today. Sadly, I'm still in the back o' beyond using a PS2 but don't buy/play enough games to warrant the cash-splurge an Xbox requires.
It's strange how it's harder to play songs you don't know, you wouldn't think it mattered.
Anyway, pure genius. Nuff said.
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Rugby League Man of Steel
It's that time of year again, when the guys upstairs start to think who to award the Man of Steel to. The Man of Steel is the most coveted individual award in rugby league.
Three years ago it went to Jamie Lyon. An Australian playing for St Helens. Two years ago it went to Paul Wellens, the St Helens full-back. And quite rightly so. Last year it was James Roby St Helens' hooker*. To be honest, I don't think he should have got it, it should have gone to Wellens again, or (dare I say it?) Rob Burrows of Leeds. But hey, Roby's another St Helens player so it's all good.
It's not only the players from St Helens RLFC who are up for the award, The Man of Steel Award, inaugurated in 1977, annually honours the player judged to have made "the biggest impact" in the British game. Voted on by members of the Rugby League press the award has often bypassed the top try scorer, winning captain or great International player.
The award is generally club and country blind, they just have to have been playing in Britain for that season. Winners include Australians and a New Zealander, and is often won by a player from a club that has no trophies in the cupboard. Except, that is, for the last three years. St Helens are the top-dogs.
This year it will probably go to a St Helens player again. There are no other teams that have individual players that shine so brightly, and it will probably be Leon Pryce. No doubt he's had the season of his career but there are a couple of others who should definately be in the running.
Keiron Cunningham of St Helens is still making a serious impact, despite his retirement age from the top clubs has supposedly been and gone. It's as if he's twenty-five again.
Danny Brough the half-back of Wakefield is, at times, pure genius.
Thomas Bosc and Clint Greenshields of Les Catalans Dragons.
My own personal view is that James Graham, the prop-forward of St Helens should get it. At the beginning of the season, he was pretty much the only forward available for St Helens, practically running the hard-yards alone. Believe me, he's going to feel this season when he's older.
*Note - this doesn't mean he sells his body. It's a position.
LINKS:-
Man of Steel....................RL Hall of Fame
Jamie Lyon......................wiki
Paul Wellens....................wiki
James Roby.....................wiki
Leon Pryce.......................wiki
Keiron Cunningham........wiki
James Graham................telegraph
Three years ago it went to Jamie Lyon. An Australian playing for St Helens. Two years ago it went to Paul Wellens, the St Helens full-back. And quite rightly so. Last year it was James Roby St Helens' hooker*. To be honest, I don't think he should have got it, it should have gone to Wellens again, or (dare I say it?) Rob Burrows of Leeds. But hey, Roby's another St Helens player so it's all good.
It's not only the players from St Helens RLFC who are up for the award, The Man of Steel Award, inaugurated in 1977, annually honours the player judged to have made "the biggest impact" in the British game. Voted on by members of the Rugby League press the award has often bypassed the top try scorer, winning captain or great International player.
The award is generally club and country blind, they just have to have been playing in Britain for that season. Winners include Australians and a New Zealander, and is often won by a player from a club that has no trophies in the cupboard. Except, that is, for the last three years. St Helens are the top-dogs.
This year it will probably go to a St Helens player again. There are no other teams that have individual players that shine so brightly, and it will probably be Leon Pryce. No doubt he's had the season of his career but there are a couple of others who should definately be in the running.
Keiron Cunningham of St Helens is still making a serious impact, despite his retirement age from the top clubs has supposedly been and gone. It's as if he's twenty-five again.
Danny Brough the half-back of Wakefield is, at times, pure genius.
Thomas Bosc and Clint Greenshields of Les Catalans Dragons.
My own personal view is that James Graham, the prop-forward of St Helens should get it. At the beginning of the season, he was pretty much the only forward available for St Helens, practically running the hard-yards alone. Believe me, he's going to feel this season when he's older.
*Note - this doesn't mean he sells his body. It's a position.
LINKS:-
Man of Steel....................RL Hall of Fame
Jamie Lyon......................wiki
Paul Wellens....................wiki
James Roby.....................wiki
Leon Pryce.......................wiki
Keiron Cunningham........wiki
James Graham................telegraph
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Super Saints
St Helens Rugby League FC go through to the Challenge Cup final, again.
Of course we're going to win, again.
Having said that, we could be up against Hull, the last team to beat us in the Cup back in 2005.
The Challenge Cup really does belong to our Great and Glorious leader, Danny Anderson, with three near-full seasons as coach and two Challenge Cup wins with the aforementioned win on the way. And I haven't even mentioned the table-topping of every year he's been here!
How Mr Anderson has ended up with no job next season I'll never know.
Okay, he's off back home to Oz and they don't like british rugby league. Actually, they look down on it. We don't play quite so conservatively as them, six tackles and a kick, while we are quite frivolous at times using sliding defense and such. It makes for a more exiting game.
Not that he'll ever read this but I have to send a thank you and a great horaah! into the ether.
Of course we're going to win, again.
Having said that, we could be up against Hull, the last team to beat us in the Cup back in 2005.
The Challenge Cup really does belong to our Great and Glorious leader, Danny Anderson, with three near-full seasons as coach and two Challenge Cup wins with the aforementioned win on the way. And I haven't even mentioned the table-topping of every year he's been here!
How Mr Anderson has ended up with no job next season I'll never know.
Okay, he's off back home to Oz and they don't like british rugby league. Actually, they look down on it. We don't play quite so conservatively as them, six tackles and a kick, while we are quite frivolous at times using sliding defense and such. It makes for a more exiting game.
Not that he'll ever read this but I have to send a thank you and a great horaah! into the ether.
Friday, 18 July 2008
She Aint All That
I'll never understand the world's love affair with Leona Lewis. Just listening to the radio now and one of her songs came on - so I changed station. It was on that one too! So I changed again, I mean you gotta be three times lucky, yes? Hell no!!! Three bloody stations playing one of her songs!
Is it just me or is she really the Celine Dion of the twenty-first century!? Heh, and I hated her too. Drown Leonardo!
I'm okay with almost any type of music, though I prefer something sweet rather than angry but I can see the good in almost anything. I've now lashed a CD on - Alison Crauss + Union Station's New favorite (with the sweetest first track you ever heard,) but it could quite easily have been Goldfrapp or Katherine Jenkins, but Lewis is just too polished. She grates. Flawless does. It has no feeling. You can almost hear the production guys pulling levers and twisting those knobs.
I have just found a new favorite singer with a love-song stylee, Regina Spector She's fun. And shouldn't love be fun!?
Heh, rant over.
Just bear in mind that all the links above are to youtube videos.
Is it just me or is she really the Celine Dion of the twenty-first century!? Heh, and I hated her too. Drown Leonardo!
I'm okay with almost any type of music, though I prefer something sweet rather than angry but I can see the good in almost anything. I've now lashed a CD on - Alison Crauss + Union Station's New favorite (with the sweetest first track you ever heard,) but it could quite easily have been Goldfrapp or Katherine Jenkins, but Lewis is just too polished. She grates. Flawless does. It has no feeling. You can almost hear the production guys pulling levers and twisting those knobs.
I have just found a new favorite singer with a love-song stylee, Regina Spector She's fun. And shouldn't love be fun!?
Heh, rant over.
Just bear in mind that all the links above are to youtube videos.
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