Over 9,000 when the corresponding game last year got 6,200. On one of the most bitterly cold nights so far this year. On a Thursday.

That's pretty damn good, free tickets or not.

Castleford 7068 up 8,128
Catalans 7667 up to 9,130
Hudds 6335 down to 5,865
Hull FC 11159 up to 11,999
HKR 7848 up to 8,260
Leeds 15068 up to 16,080
Salford 4738 down to 4,008
Saints 12120 up to 12,515*
Wakefield 4351 up to 5,094
Warrington 9870 up to 10,129
Widnes 5635 up to 6,861
Wigan 14102 up to 15,608*
*Couple of attendances missing off sporting life but all in all, a good look at the half-way stage of the season with only Salford and Hudds showing a dip in attendances.

Are they compared to teams averages over the whole of the 2014 season? If so that does look pretty encouraging, especially as you would expect attendances to improve further as weather gets better and we hit the business end of the season.

As I've said before on Salford their announced attendances never seem to bare an resemblance to the actual number there so not sure how much you can read into it. Anyone who went to their game against wigan will know exactly what I mean!

Not sure how you are calculating your figures. Based on the same fixtures last season Hull are up from 11,755 to exactly 12,000. The derby attendance was up by over 2,000 and the Catalans attendance by around 1,800. Leeds and Widnes attendances both down by around 1,000. The Widnes game was our lowest regular season crowd since 2006.

Wigan are averaging about 13,800 at the minute. Apart from the Saints game our crowds have been woeful this season, and have steadily been on the decline since 2012. Without the sellout crowd for Saints we'd be averaging about 12,100.

Sporting life.