And so it starts again...

To the despair of the wife my rugby league season started again today, my, it only seems like November since last season finished.

Today was a "friendly" match for Bramley, away to Dewsbury who are a league above us, they lost their grand final last October as did we, apart from that we have nothing in common, they are semi-professional, Bramley are an amateur team, on paper we were in for a hiding.

And on paper we got a hiding, but actually it wasn't that bad, we held them to four points difference at half time and looked very sharp and very keen, unlike last season when the first few games started with a wimper.

The final score was 60-something points to 24 but as the old cliche goes "we can take lots of positives from the game".

More importantly today saw the appearance of the benchcoats sponsored by my company, we agreed to pay for them and have them logo'ed up last April, their principle job being to ensure that any of the substitutes do not get cold whilst sitting on the bench.

It was only after having handed over the money last year that I remembered that rugby league is a summer sport and more often than not players who have been substituted will take off clothing, not put warm padded benchcoats on, hence for the whole of last season my benchcoats were nowhere to be seen.

Today they were in demand, everyone on the subs bench wanted one and everytime they stood up to reveal the back of the coat to the crowd I got my viewing companion to announce very loudly what the writing on the back of the coat said, I think everyone got the point by half time.

The other good point about today was the fact that my companion to the game had managed to snaffle directors tickets from somewhere and so we were guests in their VIP suite and stand - I even made this extend to the car parking by slowing down but not actually stopping for the man on the car park gate who was supposed to charge £2 entry, I simply shouted at him to ask where he wanted me to park, he indicated a reserved spot and then as an afterthought shouted back "are you press", now I never actually said I was a member of the press, I just waved a thumbs up at him and that was good enough, I obviously resemble some poor journalist who probably arrived later to find that he had to pay and that his reserved spot was taken.

A couple of pints in the VIP suite later and all was well in the world, how happy am I that the rugby league season has started again, I now have something to do of a Friday night and Sunday afternoon, and theres nothing quite like sitting outdoors watching the game on a frosty afternoon then picking up a Thai red curry meal on the way home - I hope heaven is like this.