05/02/08 - 3,2,1…?
Saturday 2nd February,11.45pm. The Townhouse, Leeds.
Spirits were understandably high. The tracks were top notch, and the girls - with legs that never seemed to end and skirts that never seemed to begin - had to be seen to be believed. Quality. And of course, we had the money, with Hull KR having put up the kind of fight that I’d confidently expected (which was just as well given the extravagant bar prices).
Conversation, perhaps surprisingly given our hedonistic surrounds, turned to the issue of the bonus point for Super League. One of our number – I’ll call him Gareth – felt that it needed thrashing out there are then, in the light of what we’d seen at Headingley earlier in the evening.
Now instinctively I’ve always been opposed to the ‘take something home for trying hard’ one point reward. But whether it was the effect of the rum and coke or simply the fact that - with the exception of me and two of my three amigos - this concern clearly was vexing nobody else in our immediate vicinity, I suddenly felt far less entrenched in my position.
Three for a win, two for a draw, one for losing by, let’s say, eight points or less (twelve, a la the National League seems too generous). Why not? It would probably stop certain teams sacking certain matches off in certain situations. It would make more games competitive for longer, giving teams that were two or three scores behind in the final quarter an incentive to fight on. The Super League might well be brilliantly competitive already, but the average margin of victory last season (14+) still suggests there are too many one sided games - even between teams of similar ability. And a bonus point would introduce more possibilities and permutations as far as the league ladder is concerned, adding yet more excitement to our already thrilling lives. I think I’m coming round to it, even as I type…..
Anyway, with no real consensus we parked the problem and stepped out into the late night madness of the city streets, resolved to sample the sights and sounds in a variety of alternative confined spaces prior to any return to the real world.
Two pieces of advice for the weekend ahead: 1) Warrington will be trading at 1/6 by Friday. Hull are without an all-star cast and this 17 will be unrecognisable from the side we’ll see in six weeks time. 2) Don’t go to Gatecrasher. Trashy, too loud (I still believe I’ve perforated my left ear drum) and a dancefloor full of broken glass. My first and last visit of the season…..
Adieu.
