A feast of rugby today

I depart soon for Warrington for a day spent gorgeing on one of my passions in life - the game of rugby league.

Today is the day of the National League Grand Finals and today I will be watching three culminations of the three National Leagues starting with my own team Bramley in the NL3 final at 1.30pm.

First a note of explanation.
Rugby League is a game played from February through to October with a league format existing all the way from the professional Superleague through the semi-pro National Leagues one to three (and then the amatuer Conference Leagues below that).

The league season culminates in a competition loosely named "the playoffs" where the top five or six teams in each league play in a knockout format until two teams are left to contend the title of champions of that league with a prize of promotion to a higher league there for the winning (certain ground facility and financial criteria not withstanding).

The Superleague Grand Final takes place next week between St Helens and Hull at Manchester's Old Trafford in front of a crowd that will be nudging 60,000, today is the turn of the National Leagues at the 15,000 capacity Halliwell Jones stadium in Warrington.

Fifteen years or so ago my brother lived in the area of Leeds known as Bramley and we sort of fell into the habit of having sunday dinner at his house and then wandering down to their ground to watch the club battle their way in the old third division league - they weren't managed by the club owners very well and shortly after Ned moved away from Bramley the club folded.

Three years ago a new Bramley club was formed by a bunch of over-enthusiastic supporters who had refused to let the old club name die, it was an incredible declaration of their love of rugby league and their desire for the Bramley name to survive, they had battled for several years beforehand to have the format of the club, a supporters trust, accepted by the Rugby Football League as it was a new concept to the dinosaurs that run the RFL, they were more used to camel-haired coated, trilby wearing, cigar smoking local factory owners taking on the chairmanship of rugby clubs in a benfactorial sort of way - the supporters trust idea was just far too communist-like for the camel-haired coated, trilby wearing, cigar smoking guru's at the RFL.

And with a lot of hard work and a lot of money raising the supporters trust club has just completed its third season in NL3. Last year in our second year we made the grand final but were beaten by two points by Dudley Hill, this year we meet Hemel Hempstead at the end of a season when we have romped home with the league title, now there is just one more game to go for the biggest honour in the NL3.

And promotion ?

Not this year. The jump from NL3 to NL2 is a huge leap of faith, Bramleys current ground (a community owned club) has excellent facilities but no terracing around the pitchside for spectators and does not therefore meet the ground criteria for NL2. Thats the biggest of the hurdles to overcome but there are also other factors such as a large finanacial bond required in joining NL2 to guarantee that the team is financially sound, and also the small factor of NL2 being semi-pro and players expecting payments for playing.

So today is for the honour of being named NL3 champions, its a big day in the club's short history and if we manage to win it will be a magnificent achievement for those individuals who have put their own money and hard labour into the club.


NL2 final is between Sheffield and Swinton and the NL1 (for promotion to Superleague) is Widnes and Hull KR.