Totally agree.

East Leeds called it off - lack of players was the reason I was told .

Some lads have suffered very bad injuries from a variety of leagues and clubs.

I just fear that its going to take a very bad one before YJL start helping. BARLA and Schools seem to sway over to winter and cancel the unplayable games. Thankfully no games this weekend I know that crigglestone is like concrete at the moment .

Here's hoping for a monsoon last week of the summer.

why can't we go back to sept-nov and march-june ?? nothing wrong there with me.

The issue of hard pitches can be alleviated , we've spent the money and watered the pitch when necessary, sometimes spending 6 or 7 hours the day before a game (costing £25/£30 a time) making sure we improved its condition as much as possible. I know many other clubs can't/don't do this for whatever reasons and we've played on some concrete dust bowls that probably weren't ideal. The issue of dried out pitches is exaserbated by the lack of grass on many of them as well. This has a double effect of allowing the sun through to the soil and drying it out even more while it also means the players are falling onto the hard ground without the buffer of thick grass to lessen the impact. The RFL and the various League organisations should be helping with this in some shape or form but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Another issue for me is with the integrity of the competition itself with so many breaks and inconsistencies in the fixture list. I understand it must be a bit of a nightmare to navigate the school breaks etc and I dont envy the various fixture secretaries but I can't help but feel it could be better.

Ive said before and I reiterate again, the quality of the training and practices during summer with light nights is incomparable with that which took place during winter and that's THE major advantage of summer rugby.

TBH in the 12 years I have been involved in junior rugby, the only months kids haven't trained are 2nd half of July - end of August and then December to February, which is very little difference to what is happening now due to the summer break and the weather conditions we have suffered the last couple of winters, so your argument doesn't bear up.
Also when I coached junior teams, during the months of Nov/Dec/Jan & Feb we used to train an a Saturday morning (weather permitting) thus eliminating the "Dark evening" training sessions.
IMHO the junior season should start in Feb (same tame as SL and run to the 2nd week in July with only "official" breaks on the BH weekends (Easter,Whit,Mayday) this would give enough weekends to get all the fixtures completed, even cup, the only exception is BARLA cup, which traditionally runs Sept-Dec and YJARL and the clubs will have little or no influence in changing the timing of

We might have a crigg n Stanley alliance

I agree some of the rugby as been better clan , but remember that mix up . start of season cold maybe rain going in poor windy weather . then break come back hardly ever a cancellation snowy maybe cold going into spring then summery weather.
Kids dealt with it all. Plus teams of different ability had their day.


I can't like many of us why we carnt manage with the holidays now. All of a sudden its OK to call a game off cos you have 2/3 of you're best players away on holiday in the winter it was a case of "so what, unlucky "

In winter you have school holidays in. October, (the winter break) , Easter , May day W/E , Witt's Holliday's .

Yet it worked plus it runs along the age grouping . we must stop this before the inevitable mistake will happen and a kid ends up playing in the wrong age group.

You've not read my post properly, the Saturday training was Dec/Jan/Feb therefore no games, during summer season you are training in Feb/March before clocks go forward, therefore under flood lights so in the winter season you are only training another 2 months under floodlights (oct/nov) so there is very little change IMO.

Sorry , you're right I didn't pick that up.

I actually don't mind most of the pre-season dark nights and cold, I think they can help forge a bit of toughness in the lads. We trained for 2 months in the snow on cannonball Hill prior to this season even in blizzard conditions.

The problem came when we should have been moving onto ball work but the state of the pitches available to us prevented us from doing so. As a consequence we went into the season super fit but under done in terms of tech, shape and structure.

I still think the training conditions in summer lend themselves to a far greater degree of development than the darker nights and shorter days of a winter season.

Surprised it never got mentioned before so congratulations to
Crigglestone under 13s in retaining the Wakefield Cup After a turbulent few weeks and losing the challenge cup the lads looked almost perfect on Wednesday.

Also well done to Normy Knights under 12s winning their first trophey .

Can not comment on the 14/s as I left at half time but the day was great and very well organised by all. Good to see Wakey players new and old there to present the medals .

Looking forward to the first games of the new term although it will be dumb that's been said already .
I am lucky enough to have another lad who may be or not in the top flight but hopefully they will show enough to get a spot.

He will also be playing school rugby .

Whereas the old head one of the war of roses winners goes into the hat for the national cup with 2 good wakey and 2 good cas teams showing yet again this district just floods talent as we also have another 4/5 teams .

And also div 1 schools the big boys of cas and outwood.

Its no wonder I pay less attention to wakey and more to kids