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?

I'm guessing Greater London as it's inside the M25 - by some distance.

I think so, The Filth certainly still play football there.

Wonder not! Likely course of eventsicon_razz.gifL became available. It sounded great and big time. We didn’t think about any of the “minor” details and went for it. Act in haste, repent at leisure. Or it could be we didn’t think it would be a problem and didn’t mind spending vast sums of money on multiple pitches because that would be covered by the vast upswing of gate receipts of people flocking to PL to see us getting a towelling.
Happy days at least it’s not last season. That was genuinely a load of old pony.

I wonder what Lobster does for his CEO salary ? Judging by him and previous incumbants Hughes must be easy to please as a boss.

I wonder when we first realised that going part time might not work as planned?
Was it when Ward and Langley said they were going?
Or when the realised that basically a none of the first team were staying?
Or when the realised they could only get 3 heartlands players in?
Or when one left before the start of the season?
Or when one left after about a couple of months?
Or when we didn’t win for months on end..?
Or when we realised we weren’t just ‘asset’ stripping Skolars, we were taking anyone who would come?

I also wonder when we realised Plough Lane might not be a good fit for the part time model. But this post would go on and on so I’ll leave it there.

I still shudder when I remember playing those b'stards back in the 1980's.
Hardest place to go and play back then as most of their players were as fit as butchers dogs and psychotic loons.

On the oft mentioned topic of plough lane, IMG, corporate hospo, sponsors and "moving", surely it would have been easier to renegotiate terms with Ealing rather than spend more to rent 4 grounds, heavily discount corporate hospo, shed all shirt sponsors and allienate more of the few remaining fans by settting up an OFFICIAL supporters group designed to do nothing other than p1ss off the existing supporters group who do pay to be on the clubs shirts?
Just a thought.

Met Police still use it for rugby and football plus tennis England have also just invested a lot of money on tennis facilities at the place.The local residents got a 35 year lease on running the club as there were rumours that a school wanted to build a new school on it and property developers were interested in in, but the locals around here would object to even putting up a washing line in a garden.

It is just down the road from Esher train station and Thames Ditton train stations but Thames Ditton line is a branch line so if something is going on they usually have restricted services.Ten minute walk from both.Bonus is 15 minutes from the A3.
The club is just down the road from the Thames and is in Surrey and the club as people can see in the pictures is great for families with loads of space to do activities ( pig just flew past the window)

but i suppose with the met playing there still fitting in matches might been a problem.
Bonus is Elmbridge Eagles are just down the road which run a good programme for youngsters.

Met Police FC are basically nothing to with the Met these days
The Met rehab fund, who own the facility, had an embarrassingly large amount of money in the bank so voted to open the football club to all and started paying players. Last time I was there, only one person associated with the Met, a civvy employee, was on the field. One of the Met players had his agent sitting just in front of me.

Trevor Brooking's brother all but ran the football club on his own for years. Alessia Russo's dad Mario is still their leading goalscorer. He was a policeman. Mario could have done well if he moved to a paying club but stayed with the Met football team.

Last time I saw the rugby ground there, it wasn't enclosed but there wasn't a huge stand there then so that may have changed.