I am a great believer in "each to their own" it just doesnt work for me and to my eye looks awful, the WWFC shirt is a thing of beauty in & of itself though; but WTF do I know, not as though I am a style guru.
I used to be on the committee of the club, and was First XV Team Manager for three years. But the game turning professional in 1995 didn't sit well with the old farts, who lacked any ambition. I fell out with them big time, and haven't been back there since.
They are now languishing in Southern Counties (North), the 8th tier of English Rugby, and still playing on a public park where you have to clear the dogshit off the pitch before the game can start.
Well, you'll be very disappointed for a few weeks starting on 8 September, when the Rugby World Cup kicks off in France, and pushes football off the headlines of the sports pages.
I am surprised a 7 year old would give a toss about a slight design change myself...but it's a long time since I or my.kids were 7. Time marches on. (To be honest I doubt replica shirts were a thing when I was 7...)
@bargepole Rugby. Over complex rules because the fundamental premise of the game is flawed. Too many boring dead ball plays. The professional game a financial mess. Now only played by grotesque exaggerated human forms at ‘elite’ level. An over coached play book with minimal room for self expression makes it a snore fest. Oh yes brain damage / concussion. Only chant is a slave song. Need I go on.
And, ‘badge of honour’, back in the day being required to play the game at school found myself representing Bucks at that level mostly because I was fit, fast, could actually kick a ball, needed minimal skills to shine.
All of the above comments have an element of truth to a greater or lesser extent. But equally, you can get boring snore fests in football, in games where neither side can control the ball, or string a couple of passes together, and it ends up as a 0-0 draw. Then you have the unedifying sight of players surrounding the referee and shouting in his face, as if that's going to make him change his decision.
As for finances, the game wouldn't be able to sustain 92 full time professional clubs without wealthy owners subsidising the massive losses made by most clubs.
Given the difficulties faced by most L1 and L2 clubs, maybe the EFL should consider reverting to the pre-1959 structure, when they had the Third Division (North) and Third Division (South)? That would certainly cut down on travelling and accommodation costs.
@ChasHarps the real Nobs schools play footer not rugger. Westminster, Charterhouse, Shrewsbury, Repton and arguably even Eton and Harrow play the kicking not carrying game. Your point though is well made, these schools are not for the arriviste middle class mercantile Snob class who worry about such things; they are ‘above’ all that so feel no need to differentiate themselves from the biffs playing the association game.
Deep seated socio political background to the above related to both the loss of the junior officer class in WW1 and concomitant definition of what constitutes the amateur.
My son, when he was at the RGS, played rugby against both Eton and Harrow. The Eton team, which included Prince William, were the dirtiest, roughest lot they played against.
But they thrashed Harrow by over 50 points, despite them having ex-England international Roger Uttley as their sports master.
Another regular opponent was Millfield School, which is so posh that they have stables on site where the pupils can keep their horses. On one occasion, they turned up at the RGS and were thrashed by our lads 32-0. We took the piss out of the visiting parents in their Bentleys, camel hair coats and Hermes scarves, asking them why they paid £15k per term to be coached such rubbish.
I quite like the suggestion that Rugby would never have been created at a state school.
If little Johnny had decided to just pick the ball up and run with it the ref would have whistled and he would have been told to stop fecking about, but at Rugby school little Johnny's dad owned half of London and was likely to end up in the cabinet so the little sod could do what he liked and would expect to be applauded.
Sure it's not exactly how it happened, probably only 90% accurate.
Nowhere near 90%, I'm afraid. William Webb Ellis was a scholarship son of a soldier.
In 1823 the game was played by an indeterminate number of players per side, and you were allowed to kick the ball and catch it. If you grounded the ball over the opponent's goal line, you scored no points, but were allowed to try and kick a goal - hence the origin of the try.
It wasn't until 1863 that the FA was formed, and then in 1871 the RFU, and the two forms of the game diverged.
@bargepole the reason Eton and Harrow lost is because respectively The Field Game and Harrow Football aren’t played anywhere else and they feel obliged to integrate with the mercantile class at some superficial level.
The reason RGS played them is because the Royal really wants to be like true Toffs not state school Biffs, the whole school is predicted on that caprice. If you had kids there for seven years and hadn’t worked that out then I understand why rugby might appeal.
Millfield is not truly posh it is nouveau, funded by the sort of people who have fish knifes and buy their own furniture.
I still like Rugby (Union - League is just Rugby-lite). At its best it is a thrilling game to both watch and play (not that I've played it in 40 years). I do agree however that the modern game has become overly coached and analysed at the top level and can take the fun out of it. The England team this year looked particularly lost on the field despite having some good players. It also suffers from the fact that 99% of the time the best (i.e. strongest) team will inevitably win.
And I do like @bargepole's posts. Unbelievable that it isn't a parody account and I shake my head in disbelief that there are, apparently, people in 2023 who are happy to talk and think like a Harry Enfield character from the 1980s. (I still think, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that it is pure satire as otherwise it doesn't really compute).
But, in this weird and wonderful world that we live in I will celebrate their continued contributions on here (and probably buy them a pint if I ever do actually meet them).
I too played & enjoy rugby but prefer league to union at the elite level, the latter being too stop start for my taste. League is at least still true to its northern working class roots & the community game is thriving.
I also played hockey to a decent standard & still watch it whenever I have the opportunity, though the speed the game is played at at top national & international level means it isn't a great spectator sport, unless you have played.
I now run a company that delivers skateboard coaching & is in the process of developing an activity park in association with our local district council (will include skateboarding, tennis/padel, walking & 5-a-side football, netball, basketball & cycling - MTB & BMX) all of which are great to participate in but many are not that fun to watch.
What I am trying, probably rather poorly, to say is that there are a lot of wonderful sports & leisure activities out there for both participation & spectating, whilst we all have our preferences, no one sport/activity is necessarily better than any other. (YMMV) 😁
As I have said, I am not a wearer of football shirts, however if the club was to stock a decent quality harrington style jacket in light blue with an embroidered club badge on the right tit I would be very near the front of the queue to buy one.
Comments
I know you vehemently insist otherwise, but how can this be anything other than a parody?
Didn't Vulgarian Plebs open for the Sex Pistols once?
I really can't believe I'm the only one who wonders why you're not on my block list.
There's a guy who does a similar routine on the FB page called Tilley.
I am a great believer in "each to their own" it just doesnt work for me and to my eye looks awful, the WWFC shirt is a thing of beauty in & of itself though; but WTF do I know, not as though I am a style guru.
Maybe this will convince you - here is my latest posting on the Wasps forum under the same username:
DrunkenWasps.com - Sixways (rugbynetwork.net)
What era did you play for Wasps?
1966 to 1970. Never quite made the 1st XV, my best was as a starter for the 2nd XV during a flu epidemic.
Then I had a serious leg fracture which kept me out for a couple of years, then moved to Wycombe and played for High Wycombe RUFC until I was 46.
Why don't you spend your Saturdays watching HWY RUFC ?
I used to be on the committee of the club, and was First XV Team Manager for three years. But the game turning professional in 1995 didn't sit well with the old farts, who lacked any ambition. I fell out with them big time, and haven't been back there since.
They are now languishing in Southern Counties (North), the 8th tier of English Rugby, and still playing on a public park where you have to clear the dogshit off the pitch before the game can start.
No rugby is good rugby
Well, you'll be very disappointed for a few weeks starting on 8 September, when the Rugby World Cup kicks off in France, and pushes football off the headlines of the sports pages.
It's all Plebs, Sparts and mortgage free rugby fan landlords in £100 jackets in @bargepole world.
Does it ????
Maybe in the Torygraph.
"Rugby is not a sport, but a class riddled pastime"
Whilst the parents amongst us will agree, I don't think what you just said enters a 7 year old's thought process.
I am surprised a 7 year old would give a toss about a slight design change myself...but it's a long time since I or my.kids were 7. Time marches on. (To be honest I doubt replica shirts were a thing when I was 7...)
Bayo would have been in trouble last season, then! 40 and wearing a Wycombe shirt.
I'm 44 and will be wearing a Wycombe shirt on Sunday, consequences be damned. It's just part of the trial expression for me.
@bargepole Rugby. Over complex rules because the fundamental premise of the game is flawed. Too many boring dead ball plays. The professional game a financial mess. Now only played by grotesque exaggerated human forms at ‘elite’ level. An over coached play book with minimal room for self expression makes it a snore fest. Oh yes brain damage / concussion. Only chant is a slave song. Need I go on.
And, ‘badge of honour’, back in the day being required to play the game at school found myself representing Bucks at that level mostly because I was fit, fast, could actually kick a ball, needed minimal skills to shine.
Joke sport.
All of the above comments have an element of truth to a greater or lesser extent. But equally, you can get boring snore fests in football, in games where neither side can control the ball, or string a couple of passes together, and it ends up as a 0-0 draw. Then you have the unedifying sight of players surrounding the referee and shouting in his face, as if that's going to make him change his decision.
As for finances, the game wouldn't be able to sustain 92 full time professional clubs without wealthy owners subsidising the massive losses made by most clubs.
Given the difficulties faced by most L1 and L2 clubs, maybe the EFL should consider reverting to the pre-1959 structure, when they had the Third Division (North) and Third Division (South)? That would certainly cut down on travelling and accommodation costs.
@ChasHarps the real Nobs schools play footer not rugger. Westminster, Charterhouse, Shrewsbury, Repton and arguably even Eton and Harrow play the kicking not carrying game. Your point though is well made, these schools are not for the arriviste middle class mercantile Snob class who worry about such things; they are ‘above’ all that so feel no need to differentiate themselves from the biffs playing the association game.
Deep seated socio political background to the above related to both the loss of the junior officer class in WW1 and concomitant definition of what constitutes the amateur.
The north and south divisions were cancelled because:
My son, when he was at the RGS, played rugby against both Eton and Harrow. The Eton team, which included Prince William, were the dirtiest, roughest lot they played against.
But they thrashed Harrow by over 50 points, despite them having ex-England international Roger Uttley as their sports master.
Another regular opponent was Millfield School, which is so posh that they have stables on site where the pupils can keep their horses. On one occasion, they turned up at the RGS and were thrashed by our lads 32-0. We took the piss out of the visiting parents in their Bentleys, camel hair coats and Hermes scarves, asking them why they paid £15k per term to be coached such rubbish.
I quite like the suggestion that Rugby would never have been created at a state school.
If little Johnny had decided to just pick the ball up and run with it the ref would have whistled and he would have been told to stop fecking about, but at Rugby school little Johnny's dad owned half of London and was likely to end up in the cabinet so the little sod could do what he liked and would expect to be applauded.
Sure it's not exactly how it happened, probably only 90% accurate.
RGS is the primary reason I entirely reject rugby (union) as a sport.
Nowhere near 90%, I'm afraid. William Webb Ellis was a scholarship son of a soldier.
In 1823 the game was played by an indeterminate number of players per side, and you were allowed to kick the ball and catch it. If you grounded the ball over the opponent's goal line, you scored no points, but were allowed to try and kick a goal - hence the origin of the try.
It wasn't until 1863 that the FA was formed, and then in 1871 the RFU, and the two forms of the game diverged.
@bargepole the reason Eton and Harrow lost is because respectively The Field Game and Harrow Football aren’t played anywhere else and they feel obliged to integrate with the mercantile class at some superficial level.
The reason RGS played them is because the Royal really wants to be like true Toffs not state school Biffs, the whole school is predicted on that caprice. If you had kids there for seven years and hadn’t worked that out then I understand why rugby might appeal.
Millfield is not truly posh it is nouveau, funded by the sort of people who have fish knifes and buy their own furniture.
I still like Rugby (Union - League is just Rugby-lite). At its best it is a thrilling game to both watch and play (not that I've played it in 40 years). I do agree however that the modern game has become overly coached and analysed at the top level and can take the fun out of it. The England team this year looked particularly lost on the field despite having some good players. It also suffers from the fact that 99% of the time the best (i.e. strongest) team will inevitably win.
And I do like @bargepole's posts. Unbelievable that it isn't a parody account and I shake my head in disbelief that there are, apparently, people in 2023 who are happy to talk and think like a Harry Enfield character from the 1980s. (I still think, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that it is pure satire as otherwise it doesn't really compute).
But, in this weird and wonderful world that we live in I will celebrate their continued contributions on here (and probably buy them a pint if I ever do actually meet them).
I too played & enjoy rugby but prefer league to union at the elite level, the latter being too stop start for my taste. League is at least still true to its northern working class roots & the community game is thriving.
I also played hockey to a decent standard & still watch it whenever I have the opportunity, though the speed the game is played at at top national & international level means it isn't a great spectator sport, unless you have played.
I now run a company that delivers skateboard coaching & is in the process of developing an activity park in association with our local district council (will include skateboarding, tennis/padel, walking & 5-a-side football, netball, basketball & cycling - MTB & BMX) all of which are great to participate in but many are not that fun to watch.
What I am trying, probably rather poorly, to say is that there are a lot of wonderful sports & leisure activities out there for both participation & spectating, whilst we all have our preferences, no one sport/activity is necessarily better than any other. (YMMV) 😁
Nice
As I have said, I am not a wearer of football shirts, however if the club was to stock a decent quality harrington style jacket in light blue with an embroidered club badge on the right tit I would be very near the front of the queue to buy one.