EURO/UK TOUR 2025 | Part 4

MONDAY, JUNE 9

A rebel rugby union ‘League’ funded by the Saudis is a big talking point on UK sports programs. No matter what happens there will always be real rugby league played somewhere in England, even if it is only in the backwaters of Batley and Dewsbury. I am reminded of the passion for league in England’s North as my wife, Marie and I enjoy an ale in the beer garden of the Dog and Gun pub at Keswick in Cumbria’s Lake District. Seated there with her family is a little girl with a Hull Kingston Rovers ‘tattoo’ on her forehead. News breaks that Wigan’s former Welsh rugby league star, Billy Boston is to be Knighted, the first rugby league player in the UK to receive such an honour. It has been insulting really to see a host of rugby union stars Knighted, without such an honour falling to a ‘Leaguei’. I would say it is bias against the North of England working man’s game. In Australia, former Test rugby league centre, Gene Miles and former Brisbane Easts centre, John Eales are mentioned in the King’s Birthday Honours. The Easts’ John Eales is not to be confused with rugby union’s John Eales.

Marie and I travelled to Penrith from Ilkley by train, changing in Leeds and Preston before catching a bus to Keswick, via the village of Threlkeld where we had stayed with Brisbane friends, Ray and Val Ebert in 2002. Our hosts in Ilkley – Caroline Cheadle and Will Rossingham – were a delight, as was their a accommodation. Our Keswick apartment is right in the heart of the town, with the Dog and Gun to our left and Wainwright’s pub to the right. I enjoy a pint of Laughing Gravy ale (from Ulverston) while Marie has Windermere Gin and Tonic at Wainwright’s as a female (a tourist, I think) sings Dame Vera Lynn classic, ‘We’ll meet Again’ and dances with a pub regular. In the Dog and Gun we tuck into chicken wings and corn ribs. Back in our apartment Marie is in seventh heaven as there is ‘Squash TV’, with a tournament from Chicago featured. (Marie played A grade squash in Brisbane for many years).

TUESDAY, JUNE 10

Rugby League Express is on sale here in Keswick, which is what you would expect given Cumbria is the one County in England which can claim to have rugby league as its top sport. There are three professional/semi-professional clubs – Barrow, Workington and Whitehaven, plus a host of top amateur clubs like Kells, Egremont and Wath Brow. I have covered three matches in Cumbria – Kangaroos v Cumbria in Carlisle in 1982; Kangaroos v Cumbria at Barrow in 1986 and Anzacs v Cumbria at Workington in 2004.

I chat an old bloke who doesn’t pick up his dog’s poo in Keswick town centre. He apologises and does the right thing. Marie and I have a relaxing day exploring the lake shores below the town and also walking part of the rail trail to Penrith. We finish the day with drinks at Fox Tap Craft Brewery and also The Packhorse. A male patron orders a shandy at the craft bar. Doesn’t seem right somehow.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11

Keswick business owners are out with their brooms after a garbage truck leaves a trail of broken glass from an overflowing bin. “Dog owners have complained about their animals having glass in their paws,” one owner tells me. In Australia, where kids still sometimes go barefoot, it could have been a lot worse.

Marie and I walk around Derwentwater, a 21km hike from door to door. As we walk across a paddock near the lake a woman coming the other way asks if we have seen any sheep. When I reply in the affirmative, she puts her dog on its lead. Our first stop is Mary Mount Hotel for a drink on the terrace overlooking the lake. I tuck into Cruz Campo beer from Seville while Marie has ginger beer. We enjoy a picnic lunch at Lodore Falls and then afternoon tea at upmarket Lodore Hotel, a place where we had been refused entry when walking the lake with Barry Desmond from Pittsworth in 1998. On that occasion it was pissing down and our boots were muddy. After tea, Marie and I walk around the bay at the southern end of the lake and into lovely woodland where there are cattle grazing amidst the fernery. We enjoy ice cream from a van at Nichol End, where Dexter the dog tries to get affectionate with Marie. When Marie puts her foot out to prevent him coming near, the female owner looks cross. I think she believes Marie is going to kick Dexter. Back in town we enjoy drinks in the beer garden at The Bank pub. There is a big chap in a Saracens Rugby Union polo near us. Hey mate – this is rugby league territory. No, I didn’t say that.

We enjoy quality cod and chips from dinner bought from busy – and efficient – Old Keswickian.

THURSDAY, JUNE 12

Dinner with friends, Andrew and Sandy Varley who have travelled up from Leeds. We enjoy pre-dinner drinks at the Packhorse and then eat at a quirky little restaurant where the service is delightful and the food – different – in a good way. Afterwards we adjourn to Lake Road Inn, where there is live Country and Western music.

In China our youngest son, Lliam and his company, Supply Partners, seal a deal with BYD (Technologies and automative). In Brisbane a funeral is held for Fr Ashley Warbrooke who was Parish priest at St Flannan’s, Zillmere, when we lived in the suburb. The image of Fr Ashley that sticks in my mind is a challenge sprint with our eldest son, Damien, in the school grounds. I think Damien was around 10, and his nickname at Norths St Joseph’s Junior Rugby League Club was ‘Flash’. Fr Ashley won.

In Sydney, my former News Ltd sports colleague, Jon Geddes reports (for Rugby News) that former rugby league star, Phil Blake has been sacked as coach of West Harbour.

FRIDAY, JUNE 13

Graham Walker, a waste disposal expert from the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant, saves the day as Marie I overlook Derwentwater at Friar’s Crag. Let me explain. The main reason we are staying in Keswick is a promise I made to Marie on our 23rd wedding anniversary that we would return here for our 50th. Our 23rd was celebrated while staying at The Horse and Farrier at Threlkeld. The wedding anniversary card I bought featured – on the cover – a photo of a lovers’ seat at Friar’s Crag, which looks down the length of Derwentwater. I wrote on the card we would sit on that seat for our 50th. Well, our 50^th isn’t until November 15, but there’s no way we are ever coming back to the UK in late autumn/winter again. We have done that often enough. While it is a personal thing, we would like someone to take our photo at the chair. Every time we have been here this week Friar’s Crag has been a hive of human activity. Today we got up early hoping for solitude, and we achieve our goal, but all too well. We were about to leave when Graham arrived. He lives at Whitehaven and is a rugby league man, having played the game at amateur level. He knows family members of one of Cumbria’s favourite sons, Dick Huddart, who played for Great Britain and won three Sydney Premierships with St George in the 1960s. Graham has been to Australia and while in Brisbane stayed at Manly West and went to a couple of Broncos’ games.

Back in town, my barista is an Aussie lass from Wollongong who follows the Thirroul Butchers rugby league side. Narooma, further down the NSW Coast, is her favourite holiday place. It’s where Marie and I had our honeymoon – in 1975.

Marie and I get a local bus over Honister Pass and it’s slate mine, to Buttermere, where we walk the lake circuit. One drink (Keswick Bitter moi/ginger beer Marie) at Bridge Inn while waiting for return bus. When it pulls into the village four young foreign chaps get off, all dressed in hiking gear, and light up cigarettes. Back in Keswick we have a drink at Golden Lion (Pennine Pale moi; pinot gris Marie) before a dinner of lamb chops, bought at the local market.

SATURDAY, JUNE 14

Our train to Leeds is three hours late leaving Penrith because of severe storms which hit North West England and South West Scotland, bringing down trees and powerlines. We still make it in time for the Leeds v Warrington rugby league  match at Headingley, our cabbie from Leeds Rail an excellent driver and good conversationalist. He is Leeds born and bred, of West Indian descent. Marie and I are guests of Leeds’ CEO, Gary Hetherington and his wife, Kath, sitting alongside New Zealand Warriors’ owner, Mark Robinson, who is there primarily to catch up with Leeds’ former Warriors’ player, Sam Lisone.

Leeds, coached by Australian, Brad Arthur, run away with things in the second half to win 36-12. In the crowd is former New Zealand rugby league international, David Faiuma, who has been on tour in France and England as an official of the Kirwan High rugby league side. It is Kallum Watson’s 400^th Super League game, his 265th with Leeds. Watson had a stint in the NRL with Gold Coast Titans in 2019/20.

Marie and I are invited to the corporate dining room where Gary Hetherington interviews lock, Cam Smith, who is still in playing gear. One of the guests at our table is Andrew James Ricketts (I have a brother Andrew Charles Ricketts). The Pom Andrew Ricketts says the Rickets came from Flemish cloth makers who settled in Bristol, where they then became prominent traders. My brother, Andrew’s Family Tree search had traced things back to the English Civil War when we were on the side of the Roundheads. Oxfordshire was our home County.

SUNDAY, JUNE 15

Gary Hetherington takes Marie and I on a tour of the Headingley heritage area. Gary says Brad Arthur loves sports history, and his father’s cricket hero is the great England and Yorkshire pace bowler, Fred Truman. When Gary was starting out in coaching at Sheffield in 1986, he wrote to all 12 ‘Sydney’ first grade coaches seeking their advice, but received only two replies – from Brian Smith (Illawarra) and Jack Gibson (Cronulla). 

Leeds’ rugby League boast of being eco-friendly with solar panels, electric cars for staff and electric mowers. Leeds will be one of the featured teams in Las Vegas next year and Sky Sports commentator, Brian Carney, in a dig at ‘green virtue signalling’, says he hopes they don’t plan to swim and walk there.

There is a women’s rugby league triple header at Headingley, but we have a long standing commitment – a roast beef lunch at the home of Andrew and Sandy Varley at Scholes to the east of Leeds. Andrew’s son, Jack picks us up and we have to look twice as Jack looks so much like his dad. On our return to Headingley we check out the Old Oak pub, but leave after 60 seconds when a drunk with attitude asks me how I’m going. Instead we have drinks across the road at Skyrack, a huge sports pub which was popular with Australian rugby league sides. There is lot of sporting memorabilia, including a photo of former Leeds’ halfback, Kevin Dick and a poster promoting a Leeds v Castleford match.

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