Rose tinted glasses

[stevethegas]

You see, when I were a lad we used to go t' Central pairk and watch the great players of the past.
They could catch pigeons in mid urr then. Fantastic. And the crowds - you couldn't breathe! etc.

Like my selective memory.

This week's retro match is from Central Park in 1983. Granada covered it, commentary by Keith Mackie, and a very youthful Richard Madeley in the studio. (Where was Judy?)

But several things struck me.
First the pitch was a real mess. Not quite the DW before the turf was relayed, but not good either.
Second the referee (Mr Kershaw) was so nowty and cross all the time.
Third, contested scrums? What a farce. Leave the farce to the dark side, I'd rather have ours thank you very much.
Fourth - there was nobody there. Didn't see a number but 5K at most I would guess.
Then at the end people ran on the pitch. I certainly don't want to see a return to that.

But the one real bright point apart from Wigan beating Leeds, is seeing Alex Murphy looking distraught. Always worth it just for that.

The game hasn't half come on since those days. Much better today than when I were a lad. And that's not rose tinted glasses.

[5miler]

Evolution baby????

[Wintergreen]

But in fairness that was 1983, just before Wigan dragged the sport kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Roll the time on just 4 years to 1987 and you have a completely different beast.

[Bilko]

But in fairness that was 1983, just before Wigan dragged the sport kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Roll the time on just 4 years to 1987 and you have a completely different beast.

Well next week's game is from December 1986.... you'll see the difference.

It was also at the end of the 82-83 season that 3 points a try became 4, scrum rules changed completely so non offending side got the feed and other stuff like last tackle handover and sin bins were introduced. They were big changes that helped also.

[Bilko]

Also on crowds I recall a Saints fan years ago going on about how Wigan only averaged 4,500ish in division two. He shut up when I pointed out Saints only had a nip over 5,000 in division one. Apart from the two Hull clubs, early 80s attendances were dire across the board.