The Love OF League

First of all I would like to take this opportunity to welcome and thank everyone that reads this blog. I have started this as I have aspirations to be a journalist when finish my degree at university, and so to gain some experience I am writing this blog.

For my first blog I’m going to write about an experience that many reading this will have experienced, in very different ways. Our first game and why we love rugby league.

I have been a fan of Rugby League now for 15 years now but the only reason I love the game so much is quite fortunate.  I was your very typical child who in the playground played football but never really understood sport, as I wasn’t quite old enough.  During my early primary school years I was given a free ticket from school to go to a game to watch Castleford Tigers play Halifax Blue Socks at The Jungle and all I had to do was on the back write my name and my favourite player. At the time I didn’t have one as id never been so wrote Danny Orr. Obviously as it was my first game I did have to follow the crowd with things such as clapping and cheering.  It’s fair to say at full time I was absolutely hooked. As I went to the game with my aunty she bought me a season ticket for the rest of the season, a flag and a teddy of JT the Tiger’s mascot. Not bad for one game.

What really stuck with me was the atmosphere of the crowd as there was many things for kids to do at the games that I have noticed aren’t as available these days.  The entertainment for children may not be as versatile as it once was, but one thing that still remains in a fantastic atmosphere at the now named Probiz coliseum. Since my first game I have had a season ticket every season since and I will continue to do so till I am physically unable to do so. I have been to football games and whilst they fill 70,000 seater stadiums I wouldn’t change my wonderful game for the world. Yes, football has a much larger fan base, but the atmosphere can’t be matched. For such a dangerous sport it’s hard to find many fans that you can’t have an actual conversation with including opposing team fans. Whereas football, which likes to think it is the best sport in the world, has various service crews that go to games to attack opposing fans.

I know that my love for rugby league could be biased, so I asked a friend about his first game and he wrote this for me...

My first ever game was in 2008 when I was able to obtain a free ticket for game from my friend. It did take me a few games to get into it but I did enjoy it. My friend has been going to Cas games nearly all his life and was brought with rugby league from a young age, whereas I wasn't, I was never interested in rugby and was brought up following football. But once you’ve been to a few games it soon gets you hooked.  The atmosphere during the game is electric; I never thought that a crowd of fans cheering for a team could give you such a buzz. After watching that game I went and got myself a season ticket, I only paid £30 for my first ever season ticket, I thought it was a good amount of money to watch a good game of rugby league twice a month and far cheaper than the excessive amounts you pay to watch football. You pay a small amount to watch one of the best sports in the world. It was 2008 and our first season back in the super league, we did not have the best of returns as we ended up bottom of the table by the end of the season. But even though we did the crowd still cheered every week and stayed loyal to the team, whereas in football the fans boo the players and ask for the manager to be sacked, but not in rugby league. The fans are there for the team through good times and bad times. I never thought that I would be ever interested in rugby league, it was only when I was 13 that I started getting into any sport, but if you’ve never been to a rugby game then I recommend you to go see one very soon. It’s the best thing that I’ve done; I’ve gone from not liking rugby, to joining a rugby team and following rugby league every week and going to games. You could say going to rugby league games and joining a rugby team has changed my life for the best. It really is the best sport in the world, you'd be mad not to like it!

Well that’s two very different stories on how we came to following Castleford Tigers, I understand that these sort of experiences are unique to each person and very important as it defines your sport and the allegiance you have to your team so if you have the time please do leave us a comment about your own experiences.

 All that leaves now is to again thank you for reading and to ask you to pass this blog on if you can as we would like to make this available to a larger audience.

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