Referee for Dewsbury Away

THIS WEEK'S REFEREE


There have been many occasions when fevnut has been asked questions like: Who's the referee today? Have we had him before? Where's he from?

So we thought we would answer those questions in our blog.

Below you will find a list of his previous occasions officiating in Fev matches and also his record for this year.

We have a surprising choice of referee bearing in mind where Brandon Robinson hails from!

 

 

fevnut's blog: Dewsbury Away

2017 Match 9: Dewsbury Rams Away

(Championship)  

fevnut's musings  

Summer Rugby

Over 50 years ago I was a pretty mean hockey goalkeeper. I must have been pretty crazy because there were none of the modern facemasks and helmets and even leg and hand protection was nothing like they wear nowadays. Being at school on the Surrey/Hampshire border the pitches were pretty good and I could rely on knowing what the ball would do. When I went on to university in the North Midlands I hated playing because the pitches were so rucked and muddy that you never knew what would happen and my style was completely unsuited to playing under those circumstances. How I would have loved to play on modern synthetic pitches! Much faster and much more skilful.

That’s by way of an introduction to reflecting on the changes that Summer Rugby has brought. When the change first came in 1996 there were many people who wanted to revert to winter but there are far fewer who would change back now. Perhaps it’s good that the start of the season provides us with a reminder of what it used to be like. Those games against Rochdale and Sheffield were dire with skill levels reduced and the consequence of that is to negate the fast flowing rugby that has become the norm. Play on mud and not only is it a grind but so much is down to luck. The speed and ball handling has improved league almost beyond recognition. It has always been the skill levels, rather than brute power, that has made league better than union and now we see that on a fairly regular basis. Infinitely better than the spectacle provided by the 15 a side code.

That is without even considering the comfort of spectators. The rain at Bradford was a reminder of how it used to be - soaked, freezing or more often than not, both! My thoughts turned to this topic remembering our fixture at Dewsbury on February 10th, 2013. I have climbed in the Alps in temperatures way below zero, but even though it wasn’t as cold as that at Dewsbury, it felt far worse. You could say it was because I wasn’t expending effort as a spectator but I well remember Liam Finn telling me that he had never been as cold as he was that day and he was running all the time (well, as much as Liam ever did!).

________________________________

Turning to a totally different topic. With the huge turnover of players we have had in recent years you would expect that recent players would have had difficulty getting anywhere the top of records for career points scoring. So it is all the more to the credit of Ian Hardman and Kyle Briggs that they both get two entries in the Fev All Time Top 20 charts. Ian for points and tries and Kyle for points and goals. If you look at the page in this blog entitled ‘All Time Top 20s’ you will find Ian at #7 in the top try scorers, Kyle at #16 in the top goal kickers and they are at #15 (Kyle) and #20 (Ian) in the top points scorers with opportunities for both to climb higher this year. If you do look at the page, take note of #4 in the try scoring charts!

 

T'Other Side: Dewsbury Rams

 

 

 

 

Head Coach: Jonathan Schofield and Karl Pryce (caretakers)

Sod’s law! I had just put the finishing touches to this page when the announcement came that Glenn Morrison had stood down as head coach and the Rams assistant coaches, Jonathan Schofield and Karl Pryce, would be acting in a caretaker capacity until a new appointment is made. Schofield started his playing career at Hunslet in 2009, moving on swiftly to York. He played for the Rams for three years until 2014 when he retired at the age of 24 and began his coaching career. Look at the photo and there’s not much doubt who his father is! Karl Pryce (like brother Leon) began at Bradford Bulls. After 4 seasons there he moved to union with Gloucester returning to league after a couple of years to play for Wigan, Harlequins RL and Bradford again. The last four seasons he was at Dewsbury, retiring at the end of last year.

Paul Sykes


 

Captain: Paul Sykes

 Having begun his career with the Bradford Bulls in 1999, after two seasons Paul Sykes moved to London Broncos and stayed with them for 7 seasons. In 2008 he returned to the Bulls and then moved onto Wakefield in 2012. After 16 seasons in the Super League he came to Featherstone Rovers in 2015 and then signed for Dewsbury Rams in 2016. This long career has so far given him a total of 391 appearances, 134 tries, 692 goals and 13 drop goals. That’s a total of 1,941 points. At representative level Paul has played for England, England A, Northern Union and Great Britain.

 

 

 

 

New Signings for 2017

 

During the close season Dewsbury signed three players from Keighley Cougars. Hamish Barnes is a centre and a Jamaican international. Aaron Ollett is a forward appearing most often at loose forward. He started with Hull Kingston Rovers and had two loan spells with Gateshead Thunder before moving to Keighley last year. Jode Sheriffe is a prop forward. He played for Halifax, Rochdale and Featherstone before moving to Keighley in 2012. He, too, is a Jamaican international.

 

 

Brad Foster is a 21 year old second rower who was with Doncaster in 2015 and 2016. Gareth Potts, who can play at wing or full back, also began with Doncaster and then had two seasons each with Batley and Halifax before joining Dewsbury this year. Lucas Walshaw started at Wakefield in 2011 and moved to Bradford Bulls in 2015. Although he has become a Dewsbury registered player this season he is very familiar with the Rams having previously had four loan spells with them. Hooker, Robbie Ward, began with Leeds Rhinos in 2014 and played for England Academy that year. He has played for Hunslet on loan, and last season had a short spell with Featherstone.

 

The Fev Connection

After struggling to find a connection between Fev and Toulouse for the last match, this time we have abundance! Of their current squad there are 7 players who have played for Rovers. At the top of the list has to be former Fev favourite Andy Kain whose 128 tries puts him in 4th place on the Rovers all time try scorers list. Another great favourite with Rovers fans is prop Tony Tonks, who played for Fev from 2009-2012 and together with Andy Kain was a member of the grand final winning team in 2011. Paul Sykes only had one season (2015) at Post Office Road but scored 18 tries and kicked 104 goals. In 2014, Jason Crookes came on loan from Hull FC and scored 14 tries in 15 appearances. Jode Sheriffe played 6 times (5 off the bench) at prop for Rovers and as mentioned above, Robbie Ward made 5 substitute appearances at hooker for Fev last year. Tom Hemingway played just 3 times for Fev in 2011 at hooker and stand-off. He is the joint British record holder for goals in a match. On the 16th May 2010 he kicked 22 goals (in 22 attempts) in Blackpool Panthers 132-0 slaughter of Gateshead Thunder equalling the record set by Jim Sullivan for Wigan in a Challenge Cup victory over Cumbrian amateur team, Flimby and Fothergill, in 1925.

Keegan Hirst and Chris Annakin have also played for Dewsbury this year on dual registration from Wakefield.

As if that wasn’t enough of Fev/Rams connections there are also 7 members of the current Rovers squad who have previously played for Dewsbury:

Andy Bostock (2006-2010)
Kyle Briggs (2014)

John Davies (2012)
James Lockwood (2009-2011)
Anthony Thackeray (2014-2015)
Scott Turner (2010-2011)
Matty Wildie (2015)

 Let’s hope all the players remember who they are playing for!

 

Today: Previously  -  April 2nd

Rugby League

In 1926 Rovers journeyed to Belle Vue and beat Wakefield Trinity 9-4 with 2 tries from Jim Denton and one from Joe Morgan. No goals were kicked by Fev that day.

 

Workington Town were Rovers opponents at Headingley in the semi-final of the Challenge Cup in 1955 but Fev filed to make it to Wembley losing 13-2 with a solitary goal from Don Fox. The attendance was 36,077.

April 2nd has seen three matches against Keighley. Fev won all three starting with a home win by 14-5 in 1929. In 1999 we won 32-18 at Cougar Park. The third game was a 44-10 win at home in the Challenge Cup 4th round in 2006. The tem was:

Craig Moss; Wayne McHugh, Nathan Batty, Danny Kirmond, Matthew Wray; Josh Weeden, Craig Fawcett; Ian Tonks, Paul Hughes, Stuart Dickens, Steve Dooler, Steve Crouch, Greg Nicholson.  Subs: Carl Hughes, Gary Shillabeer, Gary Ellery, Dale Cardoza

 

Wayne McHugh scored 4 tries, to add to the 5 he had scored against Skirlaugh in the previous round. A remarkable achievement!

This year he was again scoring tries in the Challenge Cup at Post Office Road against Keighley. He played for Fryston Warriors in the third round tie and went over for two more!

Some of the other fixtures that took place on April 2nd include Saint Helens winning away by 14-12 against Wigan in 1999, Pia beating Keighley 56-26 in the Challenge Cup in 2005 and a Hull derby in 2010 when Hull Kingston Rovers lost at home to Hull FC by 18-14.

In 1938, Wales beat France 18-2 in a European Championship match in Llanelli. France were the losers again, but much more heavily, in a test match against Great Britain at Headingley in 1993. The score was 72-6, with Rovers player, Paul Newlove, scoring a hat trick.

World Events

In   999, Gerbert of Aurillac elected as first French Pope

 

In 1860, First Italian parliament meets in Turin in Paris

In 1902, "Electric Theatre", the first full-time cinema in the United States, opens in Los Angeles

In 1921, Albert Einstein lectures in New York on his new “Theory of Relativity”

In 1968, Première of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’

In 1977, Red Rum wins the Grand National

 

Birthdays

Giacomo Casanova

  742 Emperor Charlemagne, 1st Holy Roman Emperor

 

1725 Giacomo Casanova, Italian writer, adventurer and famous lover

1805 Hans Christian Andersen, Danish fairy tale writer

1840 Emile Zola, French novelist, author of Germinal

1875 Walter Chrysler, founder of Chrysler Motors

1914 Alec Guiness, English actor

1939 Marvin Gaye, singer

1960  Linford Christie, British Olympic 100m gold medallist

1987  Mickael Simon, Catalans Dragons prop forward

 

 

 

 

Gareth Walker's Column: April 2nd

fevnut's blog is absolutely delighted to have received permission to bring you a regular column from Gareth Walker.

Gareth is a top rugby league journalist who has one very exceptional distinction. He chooses to write about matters pertaining to the Championship and League One.

Although this blog is devoted to Featherstone Rovers it is always good to read opinions about matters relevant to us, but not specifically about us. We hope you enjoy reading Gareth's column each week.

Amateur ambition

 

THERE is a growing move from the country’s leading amateur clubs to open up a pathway to League One if they fulfil the relevant criteria.

          National Conference League chairman Trevor Hunt is set to press the claims of its members to the RFL in coming months.

          Amateur clubs have again impressed in this year’s Challenge Cup, with two highlights seeing Siddal push full-time Toronto Wolfpack to the wire, and North West Counties club Haydock reach the fourth round where they competed admirably with Oldham.

          Hunt believes that five or six of the NCL’s 50 members would be capable of making the step up on and off the field, and wants to prospect to be discussed further.

          Speaking the the BBC’s rugby league podcast, Hunt said: “Believe it or not when summer rugby was sold to the community game five years or so ago it was very much being a part of a pyramid.

          “In it, if you were able to pass the rigid criteria of ground, infrastructure, support network and funding, then in reality you should be able to step up from the NCL to League One.

          “Coventry Bears started life within the NCL but way down the divisions.

          “They managed to leapfrog those divisions because they managed to get the ground and everything into place.

          “Some clubs feel stuck in the NCL, but I believe if they were given the opportunity to step up then they would take it.”

          Hunt has outlined the significant gap in funding between League One and the NCL as a cause of frustration - not least when the amateur clubs are all running several teams each, compared to often just one at professional level.

          “The funding difference is considerable,” he said.

          “If you’re in League One you get around £70,000 a year.

          “In the NCL, the RFL do provide a grant subsidiary which is around £50,000 for all 50 clubs - roundabout a grand apiece. These days that works out at about one coach trip.

          “You’ll find there’s a huge frustration with that.

          “In the NCL you’re required to have teams from under-8s all the way through the age groups - and at least two open age sides.

          “That’s around 250 to 300 players at each club.

          “They have a lot of investment from volunteers and their local communities, yet a club may come along who might just have one team, a ground, but don’t tick any boxes for the NCL and low and behold there’s a nice £70,000 cheque for them each year to play in League One.”

          Hunt now wants the National Conference League to put its frustrations directly to the RFL in the hope that a pathway can open.

          He added: “We’re working with the RFL to see how we can do that.”

Fev v Toulouse: Teams and Scorers

Fev v Toulouse: Teams and Scorers

Photos by kind permission of Carol Austerberry


Ian Hardman Try

Chris Ulugia Try

 

 

 

 

 

 

Referee for Toulouse Home

THIS WEEK'S REFEREE


There have been many occasions when fevnut has been asked questions like: Who's the referee today? Have we had him before? Where's he from?

So we thought we would answer those questions in our blog.

Below you will find a list of his previous matches officiating in Fev matches and also his record for this year.

fevnut's blog: Toulouse Home

 
 
 
 
 
2017 Match 8: Toulouse Olympique Home (Championship)  

fevnut's musings  

Probability and Conspiracy

I wonder how many Fev fans realised the significance of the Challenge Cup draw made earlier this week.

WE WERE DRAWN AT HOME!

No surprise there because, of course, the odds of getting a home draw are 1 in 2. But had you noticed that it was our first one at home after seven successive away draws. That last home draw was against North Wales Crusaders for the fourth round in 2014. Since then we have been drawn away to Leigh Centurions (2014); Whitehaven, North Wales Crusaders and Catalans Dragons (2015); London Broncos and Batley Bulldogs (2016); and Bradford Bulls (2017).

The odds of getting seven successive away draws are 1 in 128. What an opportunity for the conspiracy theorists! I can see them now, saying that there was some tampering with the Fev ball before it went into the hat with instructions to make sure that it was drawn as an away team. Did they finally relent to allow Rovers to have a home tie or did they make a mistake with the draw?!!

Although the odds are a lot less unlikely there was something about Tuesday’s draw even more likely to get our conspiratorial friends going. This time what happened had odds of 1 in 16 but surely sufficient to get the tongues wagging. All four Super League clubs entering at the 5th round stage got home draws. There you are “Fixed to assist the Super League clubs”!

The fact is that you can always find some stats to back up a prejudice that everyone at Red Hall is against us, but I reckon such ideas are a load of twaddle.

As I learnt when studying statistics at school and at university, the unlikely happens far more often than you expect! I remember doing an experiment when people were asked to make up a series of ones and noughts in a random way. The results were really interesting. Although it was done with a hundred people, not one of them put more than three 1s or three 0s together in succession. Yet, when you scientifically generate a series of numbers like this you often get strings of more than three in a row. I just did it on my computer and one of my lists of 100 numbers included eight 1s in a row!

Finally, Toronto Wolfpack were drawn away. Was this fixed, and if not, what would have happened if they had been drawn at home? Would the RFL have allowed that? When French clubs were first admitted to the Challenge Cup all the games had to be played in the UK.

 

T'Other Side: Toulouse Olympique

 

 

 

 

Sylvain Houles

Head Coach: Sylvain Houles

Sylvain Houles began his tenure as head coach of Toulouse Olympique for the 2011 season. This was the final year of their previous three year participation in the ‘English’ Championship league. Most of his playing career was as a centre or winger although towards the end he moved to half back or loose forward. He started with XIII Catalans (the former name of Catalans Dragons) and then in 2000 entered Super League with the Huddersfield and Sheffield Giants. He then moved to London Broncos. Houles also played for Dewsbury Rams and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats before returning to France with Toulouse. He played 14 times for France.

Sébastien Planas

 

Captain: Sébastien Planas

 

Sébastien Planas is now in his 11^th season playing for Toulouse. He appeared in all three previous seasons (2009-2011) in the Championships. For most of his career he played in the three-quarters but recently he has played primarily in the second row with occasional appearances at hooker. He is a French international.

 

 

New Signings for 2017

 

After such a very successful season in League One last year, Toulouse have chosen to continue with the same squad this year with the addition of some youngsters who play predominantly in the French Elite league for Toulouse Broncos which is their second team. The only signing they have brought in is Stan Robin, a half-back from Catalans Dragons, who played seven matches on loan for Sheffield Eagles last year.

Players to watch out for

Last year Mark Kheirallah was a points scoring phenomenon last year, achieving a total of 470. He scored 32 tries (5 hatricks) and kicked 171 goals. On 10 separate occasions he scored at least 20 points and against Keighley in June he scored 4 tries and 12 goals for a total of 40 points. He is an Australian of Lebanese descent.

Papua New Guinean winger, Kuni Minga, is an even more prolific try scorer than Kheirallah. Last year he crossed for 35 tries in just 27 matches and already this year he has scored 7 tries in 5 matches.

Johnathon Ford was born in Toronto but he wouldn’t be at home with the Wolfpack. It was Toronto in New South Wales! He played in the NRL with Sydney Roosters. He is Toulouse’s main playmaker. He has several caps for the Cook Islands and captained them in a match against Tongs in 2015.

 

 Brothers Andrew (second row) and Kane (hooker) Bentley sound no more French than Kheirallah, Minga and Ford, but, although they were born in New Zealand with a father of Samoan descent and a Maori mother, they have lived in France since they were young children as a result of their father playing for French club La Réole XIII. They are both French Internationals and have had Super League experience with Catalans Dragons.

 

Andrew and Kane Bentley

The Fev Connection

We found one, albeit a rather tenuous connection! Back in 2000, Brad Hepi came to Fev and played 7 games before moving on to Salford. His son, Tyla, is a regular prop for Toulouse. Brad played for 12 different English clubs and Toulouse is already young Tyla’s fourth club having previously appeared for  Gloucestershire All Golds (with Brad as coach), Hull Kingston Rovers and Whitehaven.

Today: Previously  -  March 26th

Rugby League

There is absolutely no doubt about the most significant match played by Rovers on March 26th. It came at Headingley in 1983, but the opposition wasn’t Leeds. It was the neutral venue for a challenge cup semi-final and Fev beat Bradford Northern 11-6 to book their place at Wembley.

Nigel Barker; John Marsden, Steve Quinn, John Gilbert, Ken Kellett; Alan Banks, Terry Hudson; Gary Siddall, Ray Handscombe, Mick Gibbins, David Hobbs, Steve Hankins, Peter Smith. Subs: Neil Pickerill (not used), Keith Bell.

 

Rovers try scorers were Marsden, Gilbert and Hudson. Surprisingly Steve Quinn only kicked one goal. Ellery Hanley, Brian Noble and Jeff Grayshon were in the Bradford team.

 

Fev have not lost on March 26th since 1951 when Hull beat them 10-4 at the Boulevard. Since then they have been unbeaten in 9 matches, although the last of those was a draw in 2006 against York.

 

Toulouse played one match on the relevant date. It was in 2011 at the Don Valley Stadium and Sheffield won 34-16.

 

In 1966, France and England drew 17-17 at Knowsley Road. In 2005 there was a match in Argentina when the Australian Police beat Argentina 40-4.

 

Dr Jonas Salk

World Events

In 1484, William Caxton printed his translation of Aesop's Fables

In 1780, First British Sunday paper published
In 1871, Municipal elections result in Commune government in Paris
In 1889, Johnny Briggs takes 15 wickets for 26 runs for England in test match in South Africa
In 1953, Dr Jonas Salk announces vaccine to prevent polio
In 1979, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat sign Eqypt/Israel peace treaty

 



Leonard Nimoy

Birthdays

1479 Vasili III, great prince of Moscow

1819 Louise Otto, German writer and feminist
1874 Robert Frost, American poet
1911 Tennessee Williams, American playwright
1931 Leonard Nimoy (Spock in Star Trek)
1979 Lee Radford, Hull FC Head Coach
1985 Keira Knightley, English actor