The Wembley Way

The new Wembley was finally opened a few months ago and after a succession of football matches and rock concerts, it was the turn of Rugby League to grace the new £800million venue.



Sometimes forgotten about in Wembley history, the Rugby League Challenge Cup final has been played at the national stadium since 1929. There have been some memorable events that have taken place at the old Wembley stadium that, unfortunately, tend to get buried under the hysteria surrounding the equally famous football and music events that the venue has hosted.

The picture above was taken at the 1999 Challenge Cup Final. It was the last rugby final to be played at Wembley before the twin towers were demolished and it was the first time I ever saw my side Leeds win a major trophy in the flesh, after plenty of final defeats it has to be said.
Then Leeds captain Iestyn Harris (on the right) is pictured with man-of-the-match Leroy Rivett, who became the first player to score four tries in a cup final. His career has since nose-dived and the last I heard, he was working at a bowling alley in Leeds City Centre.
He was present at Wembley last week, as part of a parade of Lance Todd Trophy winners, although he should have probably asked someone about the expected dress-code.

But there has been many more memorable events that go down, not just in rugby league history, but in sporting history. Take Don Fox's missed goal in the 1968 final that handed Leeds victory over Wakefield. The day when Bradford's Robbie Paul became the first scorer of a hat-trick at Wembley - and still ended up on the losing side as the Bulls went down to St Helens in 1996.

In 1998, it was the Sheffield Eagles who caused one of the biggest sporting upsets ever seen as they beat the mighty Wigan Warriors in a final that some regard as the greatest ever seen in the cup's 110 year history.

And it would have been an upset of similar proportions last week had St Helens fallen to the Catalans Dragons, the first ever non-British side to compete in a Challenge Cup final.

The Dragons, only in their second year in existence in their current guise, were massive underdogs and so it seemed only right that I became a part-time bandwagon-jumping Dragon for the day.

Here are a sample of photos from the day:

Some people were warned about staying in Leeds until 4:00am when a 7:00am departure was planned. Unfortunately, your's truly got conned into driving so couldn't enjoy himself the night before. Whilst I was awake, driving, these scenes were also repeated on the M40 / A43 / M1 on the way home.

Walking down Wembley away, this at about 11:00am.

Bobby Moore's statue


In my defence, I'd not bought the Catalans shirt just because they got to the final - this was a souvenir from my trip to Perpignan last season. I've even been to a Catalans game in England (vs Bradford, albiet on a freebie) so that doesn't really make me a bandwagon jumper.....


View from on high....


And again....


The match kicks-off.

Impressions on Wembley? Very impressive. For some, it will take some getting used to and it does lack the ore and sentimentality of the old stadium but in terms of facilities, it's infinitely better. The concourses are wide and surprisingly light for a fully enclosed walkway, the views are impressive (the above photo doesn't do it justice) and in terms of architecture, it's a far cry from those IKEA flat-pack retail park football stadiums that are unfortunately, becoming increasingly common in this country.

The only gripe is the location. I could have come up with a more imaginative place for a national stadium than a North London industrial estate, but that was as much a problem with the old stadium as it is with this one. They are regenerating the immediate area, although my suspicions are that theses will be no more than yuppie apartment blocks. We shall see.

The atmosphere was a bit flat, but I don't think that two sides so far apart, both geographically and playing-wise, would have generated an electric atmosphere. The noise does carry around the stadium well though.

All in all, an enjoyable day out. The result wasn't what I hoped but I wasn't overly fussed. I'd certainly go again, hopefully it will be Leeds there next year!

We don't want your business, leave us alone

Once again, a quick scan of the letters page in the Yorkshire Evening Post reveals numerous complaints about the state of public transport in the city and, in particular, the sheer incompetence of First.

Tales of vanishing services, non-existent customer service, poor standards of driving, punctuality, poor cleanliness and unacceptable driver attitudes towards customers are only the start of it and unfortunately, these experiences aren't in the minority if my own experience of rush-hour travel in Leeds is anything to go by.

It's the first time that I've not had access to an employee car park since starting my new role and so it was an ideal opportunity, or so I thought, to do my bit for the environment, cut congestion and save a few quid in the process.

How wrong I was.

The day starts by being crammed into a single-decked vehicle on some of the busiest commuter routes in Yorkshire with less leg-room than that found on a Ryanair flight. I'm then carted around every estate in West Leeds in the sweltering heat, because said vehicle has completely inadequate ventilation.

I arrive in the city centre and have to fight my way to the front of the vehicle because the inadequate seating facilities force other paying customers to stand in the narrow gang-way. Driver of said vehicle drives past my required stop due to his lack of observation and/or customer service skills.

Come 5:30pm, and I've got to cut short any idea of overtime - public transport clocks-off at 6:00pm despite the fact that much of Leeds' economy is based on retail and a thriving nightlife - both industries that work well after six.

So it's out as close to 5:30pm as possible and race outside to the bus stop which, thankfully, is right outside the office.

Now this is the bit that confuses most drivers, as they seem to struggle with the idea that bus stops tend to be on the left hand side of a dual-carriageway. Most drivers, for whatever reason, seem to move into the right hand lane (or to give it it's official term, the overtaking lane) well before said bus stop, making embarkation impossible. Quite what they think they are going to overtake at 5:30pm on a city centre road is beyond me, and the First customer services team are yet to answer my query.

I'm forced to walk to another stop to catch another bus but because that is a single-decked vehicle, I'm forced to wait further before I'm ready to repeat the morning routine, albeit in the other direction.

And for all this, I hand over £14 of my hard-earned every week.

I'd really like to say that I hadn't made up these experiences, but they have all happened in the space of just four weeks. I've genuinely given First Leeds an opportunity to prove that they can do something right, that there is more to them than just PR stunts and that they are capable of providing a viable alternative to driving myself into work. They can't do it, to the point where there services are simply unusable.

They don't want my business. No other private company could treat their customers with such contempt and expect repeat business, but then again, no other business would be allowed to build such an anti-competitive monopoly on an essential public service.

It's a far cry from other cities, not least London, which proved to me on Saturday that public transport can efficiently and safely transport more than 84,000 to a sporting event on a North London industrial estate, and then set them on the way home again. Compare with the two train carraiges offered by First Transpennine to transport Leeds and Bradford rugby league supporters and the majority of a 65,000 crowd back to West Yorkshire from Manchester.

These are problems that could all be solved quite easily. It just takes a bit of thought and some focus and the minute that First stop messing around with pointless PR stunts claiming to be the "ftr" (sic) of travel, the better. Rather than seeing their customers as an inconvinience, see them as customers and treat them as such.

As it is, I won't be using another service operated by First. Unfortunately foor the city's transport planners, that means yet another one-occupant vehicle adding to the congestion problems. It's not costing me much more in contract parking and to be honest, what little extra that it does cost is certainly money well spent.

But perhaps I should be careful in passing judgement on First's services, given that they've come up with a rather novel way of dealing with customer complaints.
Rather than acknowledge the complaint and address the issues raised, First have decided that they'd rather sue anyone who dares to question their means.

Nice to see that they care.