is it on bbc HD?

About as likely you turning out to be an real woman.

You can tape the red button on freeview if you plug the box into the video player but the only problem is you would have to leave it on channel 1 before you went out and then change the channel to 301 at 4.30 otherwise no

20 mins build up, they give more than that to Eastenders with that bloke whizzing around, playing basketball in his wheelchair.

Yes - I noticed that when they plugging it at the end of the last SL show.

They had more for the semi.

That really is rubbish. You would hope at least 45 minutes.

I remember 2005 (when we last went). They did the feature on John Kear, Rob Burrow and the "Challenge Cup Challenge" quiz in The Willows. A good bunch of build-up.

Just shows how many monkeys the BBC could give over Rugby League these days.

Had a discussion about this on the virtual terrace. It's an absolute disgrace that the BBC are treating our showpiece occasion as if it were just another game. You wonder if it would be the same had Saints or Wigan made the final but that shouldn't make a difference should it.

Maybe its because they are showing live coverage of the qualifying session for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix before the game...

BBC website has had kick off as 3pm for days. What do you expect from them?

I remember that one. They had Ganson as a "Mystery Guest" in the Challenge Cup Question of Sport. They also interviewed him in the referees dressing room because it was his first CC Final or something like that.

It's been changed now to 2.30pm.

I'm still waiting for the big news though............who's going to referee the damn thing!!!

Whilst it is disappointing, for the semi finals we did get a 30 minute build up.

Was Grandstand still on in 2005?

I think the demise of Grandstand cocks us up a touch on things like cup final day. It used to come on at 12.15ish, and they would be based at Wembley, with features and chat in between all the other sports. Overall, the build up used to be much more than 20-30mins, however now it needs to be scheduled in as a programme in itself the coverage is shorter.

I know, I checked



I was referring to the complete ineptitude of the BBC and their lack of interest in RL

The FA Cup final i swear is getting on to around 3 hours build up, how can they talk about a single game for that long?

Setanta Sports started it's coverage of the 2009 final at 9am.

Says it all really.

yeah but don't worry our friends at the beeb will still give us a full afternoon of the boat race,a smidgeon of racing and golf and some of the five nations,that licence fee isn't worth a toss if you are a follower of sport in general,give the challenge cup to sky (but with jiffy commentating)

If it's Richard Silverwood I'm putting £500 in Huddersfield.

I'll go for:

Ref: Steve Ganson
TJ: James Child
TJ: Clint Sharrad
RR: Richard Silverwood
VR: Phil Bentham

Do you reckon they will have it on a live feed on BBC i-player?

Was the semi final shown via a live feed?
If so then I don't see why not.

I imagine so. The semi was shown live on BBC sport website.

Yes, with highlights on same link 24 hours afterwards.

Yes, it was on Grandstand, after footbal focus - I still have 2005 on tape. The whole of Grandstand was more or less dedicated to the final.

Axeing Grandstand is still a terrible move, as you had lots of build up in the later years

i wonder why ray french isnt doing the commentary

Hasn't Ray French now retired? It must have been all the negative comments on this forum that drove him to it!
And, if Saints aren't in the final, it's not worth him going really.

Scheduling is a problem for the beeb, as we can't miss Miss Marple now can we?