fevnut's musings
Are we Downhearted?…..NO!
Most years when Fev lose their first match of the season we do
feel downhearted. But last Sunday was very different. We were playing away
against a team that virtually all the pundits have tipped to finish in the top
five. And it’s a team that includes a high proportion of full-time players.
When you add in to that the fact that Fev were playing with seven
players making their débuts and four dual reg players it
is a miracle that they managed to play so well together as a team.
There were other factors that
mitigated against us as well. Those poor PNG lads, and probably the two Aussies as
well, surely can’t have ever played before in conditions like those they faced
at Odsal. Continuous freezing and an incredibly slippery surface. It was not
surprising that Ase Boas slipped over the first time he tried to run!
To come out of that losing by only
one point was pretty miraculous especially considering the try that Bradford
was awarded when the last time the players hands were in contact with the ball
was before the line and he never, ever had any control over it. Some people
have blamed the referee but that is the sort of incident that should have been
very clear to the touch judge.
So, all in all, we were absolutely
delighted with the performance of the Fev team. It looks really promising for
the season ahead. Certainly not downhearted, upbeat is what we are feeling.
Bradford’s treatment of away supporters
It seems as though the Bradford club have nothing but contempt
for opposition supporters. Perhaps, with the pretty huge fan-base they have they
consider it unnecessary to attract away fans. A 5,000 crowd at Odsal would be
less than 1% of the population of the Bradford area. That’s rather different to
a 2,000 crowd at Post Office Road representing 13% of the Fev population!
Let’s
compare the prices stated on the websites for sitting in the stands at the two
grounds. We are comparing the prices for seating because at Fev simple entry to
the ground allows people to sit in comfortable stands.
Adult
|
Concession
|
Junior
|
|
Bradford
|
£28
|
£23
|
£15
|
Featherstone
|
£20
|
£15
|
£5
|
For
that price supporters in the main stand had to endure their time in the ground
with no nearby access to toilets. For reasons explained below we ended up at
halftime unable to get to a toilet and ended up going round the back of the
closed ones and having to pee there out in the open! Many people found that
they were charged £25 for access to the ground (seating was £5 extra) for a
ticket that clearly had £23 printed on it. Surely that is legally dubious.
fevnut
rather dreads trips to Odsal anyway. Having a lung condition that makes walking
up steps or inclines very difficult, Odsal is the worst ground for us to go to.
We had intended to buy tickets in advance but then learned that the Fev shop had only received 50 concession tickets and they had already sold them and no more
would be arriving. What we did do was purchase online a car park ticket so as
to avoid having to navigate around the Odsal ground. We arrived at the ground
and parked up in the car park which meant that we were close to the stand with
no steps or uphill slopes to navigate. A few yards from the car park was a
barrier and only those who had already got tickets were allowed through. We
were informed that we would have to walk all the way around the outside of the
ground to a pay-turnstile, something that we physically couldn’t have done! A
million cheers for one of their stewards who listened to our plight and made
alternative arrangements for us. It was not something he was supposed to do.
How can the Bradford club justify treating away fans like that?!
Nightmare
On
Sunday night we had a horrible nightmare. We had stayed up really late watching
the American Football Superbowl. Then it was off to bed and very quickly to
sleep only to suffer from this nightmare. In it the Super League and RFL had
decided to take a leaf out of the way American Football is organised and
introduce a system in which clubs fielded different teams depending on whether
they were attacking or defending and yet another team to receive kick-offs.
Each time there was a change in possession there was a long break while the
sides sent on their defensive or offensive teams and the 80 minute game lasted
several hours. It couldn’t happen, could it?
Josh Hardcastle
Last
week we wrote about Josh’s sending off for a dangerous tackle against Leeds. It
wasn’t a bad one and clearly there was no malice in it. But we feared the worst
because recently the disciplinary have been handing out 5 or 6 match bans for
dangerous tackles. We are very pleased that the panel have seen a bit of sense
and Josh has only got a two match ban. He’ll miss the Batley and Leigh matches
but will be back against Halifax.
Leak
Alistair
Leak is Batley’s usual starting hooker. We’ve just been processing results from
the 1915/16 season when Fev, although still amateurs, were involved in the
Wartime Emergency League alongside professional clubs. In the match on October
23rd of that year against Batley their hooker was called …Leak! Is it the same bloke? He
must be between 120 and 130 years old!!!
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