I'll be there.

2.5 hours from Newport with no changes. Fine by me.

Also it goes via Shrewsbury which is on the Manchester line and never experienced any delays on that line to be honest.

I have friends in North Wales and used to travel up there regularly , most trains go straight via Chester instead of Wrexham but its no major delay.
Can be done from the capital here in under 3 hours so shorter than most of our away journeys.

However to not know where a professional sports team are playing their matches this late on in the year for the coming season is nothing less than shambolic from the club, and is further undermining our credibility. I am all for spreading the game across the country but there is no real point in having another club so close to the 'heartlands' especially if most fans in that area already support one of the English sides

Not that I am suggesting the club are moing to North Wales permanently.

We need to develop the support base in the 'Rugby' stronghold that is S

Wales first , North Wales has always been football dominated.

I travel every week to N Wales and there are five good trains a day and they do travel on time, but that is Monday to Friday, weekends is a different matter. Anyway forget the travel problems, why is one of the most popular games being played in N Wales. There would be a riot if The W. Riding clubs were expected to play games at Hull. There appears to be an agenda to lose fans, not strengthen it, and certainly having paid for season tickets last August I didn't think that mathes would be played in N Wales. Easier supporting Warrington.

I live in Chester and study & work in Wrexham. On a personal level I'm made up that the Crusaders are bringing some games to north Wales and I will definitely attend.

Believe me, there is a massive appetite for Rugby League in north Wales and the borderlands. I can understand the frustrations of Crusaders supporters and if they only choose to play one game up here (although I suspect that won't be the case) then choosing Leeds seems a strange decision, though I am aware of the reasons given.

I really hope the Crusaders promote the game/s in Wrexham as much as possible. In my role with Chester Gladiators I have good contacts with many local Rugby clubs and will be offering my services gratis.

I am sure RL would prove a big hit in north Wales and that the Crusaders will reap the benefits.

Hope that the Quins game is at Newport, Bridgend was the closest we had to a 'derby' (guffaw) game.

As our club seem more concerned about ease of access for away fans than they do for home fans, the Quins game will probably be at Craven Cottage.

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/no ... port/print looks like the end in nigh ready for sl my

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/no ... port/print looks like the end in nigh ready for sl my

What a shame that your backer has only managed to maintain his enthusiasm for one season. No team can improve home support where people do not know where the matches will be played.

I hope the game against Bradford is at the racecourse ground it'll be ace. Cheshire Oaks in the morning then Rugby league in the afternoon at what is a nice ground. Better than most Super League clubs in fact.

Cheshire Oaks in the morning and then a rugby league match in the afternoon" I think Widnes Vikings are closer than Wrexham and they know , where they will be playing." Liverpool city, Huyton,Runcorn,Prescot panthers, Chorley and now Blackpool all the same team with lots of names and grounds.

deluded muppets make me puke. people down here are killing themselves for your sport and all you can do is hope and pray we fail. scum the lot of you. nice list, if we fail you add one more to it...simply rugby league itself.

The deluded ones were the ones who just couldn't see any icebergs on the horizon. EVen when they were pointed out to them, they just ignored it as "flatcapper rants". The club has clearly hit not one but multiple icebergs and you still can't see them.



You really do need to be able to distinguish between discussing the likelyhood of Crusaders failing and wishing it so.

If I interpreted your last sentence through your standard "bitterness filter", I would accuse you of hoping that rugby league would fail.

Which of course it wouldn't. The loss of Crusaders would be a blow but the sport has survived and even grown despite the loss of more prestiguous expansion clubs.

Trouble is the people in South Wales AREN'T 'killing themselves' for the sport of Rugby league.

Average attendences for Celtic Crusaders last season?

Slight innacuracy there my friend. People in South Wales ARE "Killing themselves" to get to rugby league and support it .....EXCEPT that we are going to Saints/ Warrington/Wigan/Leeds and not to crusaders.

Crusaders Average 3,668
Salford Average 4,467
Quins Average 3,436


Not bad considering the other two had twice as many home wins and over 120 better points difference.

Salford won 3 times as many away games and Quins 7 times as many.

I don't think our average was that bad to be honest. I expected around 4,000 but didn't expect the problems and so few wins.

Sorry not allowed , the highlighting of the Fulloncrusaderbronquins poor attendances is not allowed on these forums , you will immeidiatley retract or your ' flat cap ' will be in the post

That is because they [iwere[/i flatcapper rants.

This crisis has been brought about by the RFL. It is the RFL who has insisted upon all SL clubs being based at supa doopa new stadia, even amidst the worst recession in aeons, and it is that which has driven Celtic out of Bridgend and upwards towards the north. This is not of their own making and personally I'm really sorry for the fans in southern Wales, I'm sorry that the RFL have been so incredibly stupid as to repeat history by undermining yet another expansion club and equally sorry that they have not the collective brains, imagination or humility to admit their stupidity, withdraw their insistence on new stadia, and allow Celtic to return to Bridgend and continue with the good work that was going on down there.

If I had the power I would obliterate the RFL in a flash and replace it with a professional sports organisation.

Grrr, this gets me mad.

but the RFL are most definatley not to blame for this one

Starbug, had the RFL not insisted upon new stadia being a criteria of the licence process and had they not continued to insist upon that - to the extent that they sent out threatening letters (oh, sorry, reminders) to those clubs with 'below standard' stadia only recently - in spite of being in the midst of the worst recession in ages and regardless of whatever else clubs are doing in their localities, the Crusaders would not have felt under pressure to leave Bridgend and therefore they would not be in their present predicament.

You tell me how that is bollox?

I still can't see us playing primarily out of North Wales as the only chance we have is down here. If we do we'll be cutting our own throats. I hope the RFL can see this even if we want to do it.

If we stay down here and have a couple of years of stability off the field and what I think will be progression on the field with the coaching set up then the sky's the limit. All we want is a boring season off the field where we stay out of the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Fingers crossed as I think if we can ride out these first few difficult years there is a big future for rugby league down here.

it was the Rugby League who made the rules, FRAMING THE FUTURE , new grounds was one of the citeria ,if it was Widnes with an old stadium instead of saints "we would have been kicked out".
We had to make cutbacks to pay for our stadium and the team suffered ,we even played games at canal st, what is happening at saints, happened at Widnes many years ago. NOW ALL THE TEAMS MUST MEET THE CRITERIA or move for a team that does.

If crusaders had won a grand final and gone up i for one would respect their position in super league, and finally your home games did you know? it takes two minutes less to get to Widnes along the M5 (3HRS 36MINS), than it does to wrexham(3HRS 38MINS) REF GOOGLE big mistake moving
the club needs to stay loyal and local to its fans!

Totally agree. This is the reason I believe the RFL will not allow any move if it is any way near permanent.

Widnes will be in next time I'm sure of it. We've got off the mark now, not the best season by any stretch of the imagination, but we're off the mark with regards to Super League and if we stay in South Wales I think we can make a success of it. I just hope we don't move to Wrexham in any great capacity as it will be the beginning of the end. The fan base, although small this will grow with time, is in South Wales as is the majority of the young rugby playing talent.

I am pleased someone has chequed how long it takes to get to Wrexham and the fact other RL clubs can be reached faster from S Wales. I have said this many times but there appears to be a body of people who appear to think it is nothing travelling to the north.
When the Wales RU reorganised into areas, it was proposed that Llanelli would also have N Wales and play matches there. That has gone in that Llanelli have only played one game in N Wales, and with their current financial position I cannot at the present time see another game being played there in the near future.
Money is a major factor, and sadly at present their appears to be more in N Wales, and certainly current northern RL players are more willing to play for a side not too far from the heartlands of the game.
In the south another year or two we shall have local players who will be able to compete at the games top level, and with the massive programme going on at junior level it would be a disaster to leave S Wales completely.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. The RFL has consistently supported and encouraged the growth of Celtic Crusaders. Many will agree that Super League for such a young outfit was a risk that they were rightly or wrongly willing to take for them in the first place. The RFL are the reason CC has had it's chance at the top flight. The Millennium Magic was also partially designed to drum up interest in South Wales. It is something the RFL wants. To blame them for the recent fiasco's is very misguided. I would blame them for putting them in before they were ready but thats another matter. They've been veritable cheerleaders.