Bradford/Westleigh

So now I shall attempt a late recount of the tour.

On our second day in Manchester, England the group played their first game in the UK at Westleigh while a few of us who were rostered off travelled to Bradford to watch Steve Menzies’ Bradford Bulls take on the Castleford Tigers in a UK Super League match at Gratton Stadium. Travelling on the English motorways was a new experience. Despite the speed limit, people tend to fly as if they are on a German autobahn. However Jacko refused to do as the Romans do and we trundled along at on or just below the limit. We took quite a while to find the ground – probably because it is basically in a crater. The stadium was fantastic, a great ground to watch league at and the small crowd of 8000 provided a decent atmosphere. Quite surprising considering this ground held the attendance record for a league match before 2000 with over 100k at the ground. It was an entertaining game with typical super league defence (horrible) and tries were easy to come by for both teams. It was a seesawing game with Castleford edging it in the end 40-38. After we (mainly Jacko) spent most of the game abusing Dean Widders, he ended up making 3 line breaks in the 2nd half including a length of the field try to win the game for Castleford. After the game we met up with and had a chat to Steve Menzies and Chris Nero, whom we got free tickets through.

So when that was over we made our way to Westleigh to join the rest of the group and watch the rest of the game. It was an even contest with Westleigh being too good in the end, chasing down CPCC’s total of 7/214 off 40 in the 36th over with 4 wickets in hand. Not only were we beaten in the cricket but we were also controversially outdone in the boat race after a disappointing performance.