fevnut's musings
The
Tingle Factor
Once every
few years there are matches that leave us tingling with joy and excitement as
the final hooter goes. These are not necessarily trophy winning games but matches
which, for a variety of reasons, go far beyond the normal satisfaction of an
ordinary victory.
For us
there have been three particular games that have produced the ‘Tingle Factor’.
The first
was the last league match in 1998. Fev were sitting in 6th place in the league
table and had to get up to 5th to qualify for the play-offs in what was the
first year of the play-offs. Because there were 11 teams in the league,
Hunslet, had already completed their league fixtures the week before. If Fev
won their last match at home to Leigh they would draw level with Hunslet but
Fev had an inferior points difference so they needed to win by at least 34
points to claim a top 5 place. The match started slowly Fev taking the lead
with a penalty. But they slowly built the pressure and with a wonderful hat-trick
from Danny Baker and a brace and 9 goals from Richard Chapman they achieved
their goal with a 58-4 win. As it turned out that massive win also put us above
Swinton into 4th place.
The second ‘Tingle
Factor’ match is one that is well remembered by every Fev fan who was around in
2012. It is, of course, the win against Cas by 23-16 in the Challenge Cup. We
still have our ticket for that match secured to the front of the fridge!
Last week’s
win against Leigh joins the list. It was a thrilling match with a completely
awesome performance by our lads. In recent years wins against Leigh have been
few. Add in to that the ‘Duffy’ issue and the fact that it was an away match in
the play-offs all added to the excitement.
We were
under huge pressure for so much of the game and were pinned back in our own
half for much of the time. A great kicking game and an almighty performance
from every member of the team along with long-range tries (which have been rare
this year) let us almost shaking with happiness when the hooter went! We know
that Jack Render didn’t play but we include him in the picture!
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| All Heroes! |
Foreign
Teams
It’s been
interesting to follow the concerns of Super League about the possible promotion
of Toronto this year.
We believe
that the emergence of Catalans, Toulouse and Toronto have been very positive
for rugby league but there is one big issue.
It has to
be totally unacceptable to find that teams travel away to Toronto and find that
certain players are ineligible for a visa weakening the team.
It is our belief
that it should be a condition of entry to UK rugby league that any outside team
taking part should be required to guarantee that all players from UK clubs can
enter their country to play matches. It should not be beyond the bounds of
possibility to negotiate with their government for short stay visas (probably
three days) for players and club officials.
The
Names of Play-Off Matches
Words are meant to be explanatory, to convey messages and
elucidate. It seems, however, that the titles given to the various 2019
play-off matches do the opposite.
In a sporting context the word ‘Final’ indicates a match in
which the winners become the Champions. But the first two play-off matches are
called Qualifying Final and Elimination Final. They are not ‘Finals’ and the
word is simply confusing!
Then the weekend after the ‘Finals’ we get the ‘Semi-Finals’!
Since when do semi-finals come after finals? And they aren’t semi-finals
anyway. They are two very different matches and only one of the winners goes
through to the ‘Grand Final’.
On the third weekend we get the ‘Preliminary Final’ which is a
sort of semi-final in that the winner goes through to the Final.
All clear? Rugby League needs as much press coverage as it can
get and yet I can see any journalist and many sports fans who are not regular
followers of our sport getting utterly confused. Indeed many regular fans find
the titles of these matches obscure the nature of the play-offs rather than
explaining them.
For goodness sake let’s have more sensible names for the matches
sorted out before next year.
Here are some suggestions to start the ball rolling.
First Weekend: Qualifying Play-Off and Elimination Play-Off
Second Weekend: Qualifying Semi-Final and Elimination Semi-Final
Third Weekend: Final Eliminator
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