Saves me the hassle of traipsing to south london, but it would be good to see the club make an effort to fill a bus north for this game.....

I thought this aswell, would be nice to see the club put something on for the supporters

They’ll open up the Gold Lounge live stream the game £30 a pop with one course meal. Job done!

Don’t laugh- you know that’s what’s going to happen!

I think the squad needs to be deeper. Carry on with draws like this and there is a danger of being in two Wembley Cup Finals on the same day!

I’m sure Skolars would be prepared to loan us a few as per last year and, of course, by then I’m sure these much delayed new recruits will have arrived.

If the Commercial bloke does a runner, there's a job for you there BT.

I can see a CC re-run of July 2013 (the semi's) We'll (if we??) beat York, we'll possibly face Wigan in the last 8 and lose 0-70 (if not by more) at home. DH will have yet another meltdown, then another budget cut & probable stadium move to contend with as we'll be ousted by London Irish. Hope I'm wrong.

Leigh have a decent shot at reaching the QFs for the first time in a while but are unlikely to get to the final (this time). The same can be said of Broncos but the first stage of the long game has been achieved - you are in the SF of the 1895 Cup; one win from Wembley. That would be another London ground to play at (yes, you've been before) but Bongser is sure that there'll be less grousing on here about travel to the venue!

Think that there should be more excitement on here about the SF. As Bongser's soft spot for The Bulls is irrelevant, you have his unqualified support for the 1895 Cup (sponsored by Derek Beaumont

).

I’m unsighted on how the draw for the 1895 works. Whether as lowest ranked we’ll play the strongest - Halifax or whether its random. Either way if the team wants it we definitely have a chance and I already have tickets for Wembley so I’m in. I can confirm that the seating at Wembley is a step up from Rosslyn Park and I believe they have dispensed with the asbestos roof so that will make a nice change. Sadly if the match is played at the end of a long day of matches we may well be moaning about patchy attendance again. I recall the Eagles v Widnes one. Quite a few from Widnes- say 2,000 and about 50 from Sheffield knocking around a 90,000 stadium was not a good look. My hope is London would bring a few more than that but ...who knows.

"Batley Bulldogs, Halifax Panthers, London Broncos and York Knights will also go into the hat for the draw for the Semi-finals of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup. The draw will be made on the weekend of 17/18 June and ties played on the weekend of 23/24 July."

Suggests an open draw. Plough Lane will have re-opened, but by the time of the draw, pre-season football fixtures will have been announced so I guess the weekend may not be fully available.

I like your energy, you'll always be more than welcome to any of the 6 or so stadiums we play our games at.

No idea why the draw can't be done now & done with it. However, if AFC can't manage to keep that weekend free with this amount of notice then that's a pretty poor show.

I assume it’s in case we fold in the interim and they have to make the draw again.
As a back up most amateur football doesn’t start until August so Hackney Marshes and Wandsworth Common would be available. Not sure how many IMG points we’d get for that but that might be moot now. We can’t go lower than Cat C can we?

To be honest BT, I'm a tad surprised there isn't a category just for us & Skolars.

Whilst they aren't yet public, most senior football teams will already have a fair chunk of their pre-season matches pencilled in. You don't leave it too late or you will probably struggle to get teams of the right stature, pitch, style of play etc. Once you have a few which fills your managers wish list, you then fill in remaining dates. No serious football club will leave it late.

The team I watch most weeks are five steps below the Dons and already seem to have all Saturday's booked bar July 8th.

Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/

Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/

Those horses look like the ones Stubbs rejected and, boy, did he let some crap ones through!

In fairness, looks a nice, suitably sized joint. Though if anyone overdoes the beery warm-up, Bongser hopes they find the correct playing field.

Quote ="gardener"Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/'" We could then say that for at least half the home games we had sell outs which we could spin as a good news story. Is corporate up to standard though? As you know that is a key element as we seek to attract sponsors. I note it’s outside London as well which may fit with our new modus operandi. Sadly weighs in at a 4 hour plus round trip from North London so I’d have to give it a swerve.

Quote ="gardener"Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/'" We could then say that for at least half the home games we had sell outs which we could spin as a good news story. Is corporate up to standard though? As you know that is a key element as we seek to attract sponsors. I note it’s outside London as well which may fit with our new modus operandi. Sadly weighs in at a 4 hour plus round trip from North London so I’d have to give it a swerve.

FOUR HOURS, BT? Leigh doesn't have a railway station (as has been repeatedly pointed out on here), but we can get to any away SL ground (barring that of Catalans) in way less time than that. Even Cumbrian trips are shorter time-wise.

Move up North, mate it's what everyone else is doing.

Quote ="gardener"Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/'" Very nice, I'll try not to get lost between the log flume and the wacky warehouse!

Quote ="gardener"Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/'" Very nice, I'll try not to get lost between the log flume and the wacky warehouse!

All the speculation about playing at yet another ground (I assume RP would be used for the 1895 game, if drawn at home) makes me wonder how much thought was given as to how to handle the unavailability of PL. Surely a sensible strategy, once it was known that PL couldn't be used for several weeks per season, would have been to continue to use Ealing for training, youth games etc and a few first team games? At least we had something of a presence there and use it a bit like a county cricket club festival ground?

That sounds quite reasonable HB. Sadly I suspect Hughes & the tame Lobster are incapable of much in the way of rational planning. It might be questionable that they were bright enough to be aware PL wouldn't be available for such a long period in the summer when agreeing the deal.

Quote ="gardener"Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/'" Name rings a bell, didn't it use to be the Met's sports ground?

Quote ="gardener"Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/'" Name rings a bell, didn't it use to be the Met's sports ground?

No doubt Mr Gardener will confirm, but I believe it was the met police sports ground. I think Met Police FC use it and Surrey have used it for T20 cricket. Is it in Greater London or just over the Surrey boundary?