Hull KR fan to miss Challenge Cup final due to wedding clash
"Colin was stood there and he looked a bit dazed after it. He was sad because he couldn't go," she added.
Wendy said she was "really upset" after the semi-final because her brother - who is a Hull KR supporter - would be missing the all-important match too."It's not fair on him because he's 72 and, if he wants to go, it's not fair holding him back," she said.However, when Wendy rang her brother to tell him he could miss their wedding and go to the game, he replied: "My sister means more to be than rugby.""That made me cry," Wendy said.The bride and groom are getting married at 13:00 BST in Coniston, east of Hull, and are hoping to have their speeches finished by 15:00 when the game is due to start."If people want to watch it, I said that they can have their phones in front of them on silent and let us know when Rovers score," Wendy said.It will be Hull KR's second Challenge Cup final in three seasons after they lost to Leigh Leopards two years ago. If they win on Saturday, it will be the second time they have won the competition, the first being in 1980 against city rivals Hull FC.Wendy said: "We'll be over the moon. It will be a proper party that night."
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Oasis-style ticketing and expendable fans: the battle to retain football's soul
'I'm a bit younger, so this is all I've known,' says Nick Clarke, 'but something that defines this moment is the feeling that it's our last chance. You know that phrase: 'The game's gone'? I think the game is genuinely going away. It's excluding traditional supporters and the communities that built the clubs in the first place.' Clarke has just celebrated his 30th birthday and is coming off the back of a big season. As one of the four season-ticket holders behind the MCFC Fans Foodbank Support, Clarke has been active among the Manchester City fanbase and in the community since the pandemic. With the growing concern over the pricing and provision of tickets at his club last year, he helped coordinate protests by fans whose rivalries go back generations, but whose problems are increasingly shared. Supporters of Everton, Liverpool and Manchester United and others joined City fans under the banner 'Stop Exploiting Loyalty' and in doing so became part of a new wave of supporter activism. 'I know there's all these things about multi-club ownership, private and state ownership, playing games abroad, accusations of killing the soul of the game,' Clarke says. 'But, really, what is the game? It's the communities that go to it, it's the communities that have made the clubs who they are, going back four, five, six generations till their very inception. 'The wider football supporter community are only just now cottoning on that we have so much more in common and if we don't stand together the game is going to be gone before we know it. That's all we have to do and all we can do. We just need to really keep up that momentum.' It already seems there will be reason for fans to take a stand once more this season. It is not the first time they will have come together to demand change, but for those with clubs at the top of the pyramid there is a sense the ground is shifting and the needs of fans is becoming an afterthought, if not an outright problem. At the heart is a concern that clubs want to move away from having matches filled with season-ticket holders towards something more casual, and more lucrative. Imagine every Premier League fixture becoming more like an Oasis gig, for ever. 'The problems are different at different levels of the game,' says Tom Greatrex, the new chair of the Football Supporters' Association, who drove the Stop Exploiting Loyalty campaign. 'In the Premier League, and at the top of the Championship, Stop Exploiting Loyalty has helped to bring to the fore a set of issues that have been developing over a period of time. 'We are seeing that parts of clubs' fanbases, which have traditionally been loyal and go home and away, are now almost expendable to not all, but many of the people that currently run a number of those clubs. It's gone beyond exploitation to expendability.' Fans are suffering rises in ticket prices, the lowering or ending of ticket concessions and initiatives that require season-ticket holders to attend a certain number of games each season or risk losing their place, as examples of this trend. According to Greatrex, the effects are being felt in some grounds. 'The number of people who are there almost to experience something which they're not necessarily part of has tipped into a significant proportion to the extent that it undermines the thing they're going there to experience,' he says. 'There is a real danger that in a short-term push for increased revenue from matchday tickets and associated spend that clubs are in danger of actually undermining the whole 'product' they're so proud of.' One topic that crystallises the anxiety over expendability is that of matches being selected for TV. There will be more televised games than ever this season, with Sky showing a minimum 215 Premier League fixtures. With each televised match comes possible rescheduling and a potentially challenging (or even impossible) journey for fans. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'There can be very very short-notice changes, which make it very difficult for people to be able to attend those matches. I don't think there's been enough focus on things that could be done to mitigate some of the frustration that comes from those changes.' The FSA has called for a 12-week notice period on fixture rearrangements, the provision of more 'football special' trains and the extension of the £30 cap on away tickets into the EFL. The Premier League has committed to giving six weeks' notice of fixture adjustments on all matches until January, but last month had to apologise after failing to meet its own deadline of announcing all September adjustments by 9 July. It is striking that the mood among fans is so febrile at the time the government has passed legislation designed, in part, to give supporters more influence over their clubs. Fan consultation is a central requirement of the new Independent Football Regulator for the English men's elite game and legislation is, in part, the result of long-term campaigning by the FSA. It is not a panacea and its influence is unlikely to take hold for some seasons yet, but Greatrex, a former Labour MP, believes it can form a platform for better understanding between fans, clubs and competitions. 'More than ever, there is an appreciation – among some, it's reluctant, but among others, it's embraced – that supporters have a legitimate voice that deserves to be heard and their views to be considered,' he says. '[The regulator] is actually the basis for a much more constructive approach, which means that if clubs are sensible you can prevent a lot of the flashpoints getting to the point at which they become high profile, because you've dealt with it sensibly ahead of that time.' Clarke would much rather have dialogue than protest. 'I don't want to be doing another protest all my life,' he says. 'I know there's no easy answers but a lot of this protest energy has come because people feel they're not being listened to. That's where the anger comes from.'
Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Elizabeth Hurley gazes adoringly at Billy Ray Cyrus as couple put on a loved-up display at The Inheritance premiere in London
gazed adoringly at her boyfriend Billy Ray Cyrus as trhey attended the premiere of her new Channel 4 show The Inheritance in London on Wednesday. The actress, 60, put on a loved-up display with the country singer, 63, as they held hands and posed together at the event. Elizabeth turned heads in a red figure-hugging midi dress with a cut out detail along the chest. The Bedazzled star added height to her frame with a pair of gold heels and complimented her look with matching earrings. Billy Ray opted for a black short-sleeved shirt along with a matching pair of trousers and black shoes. Also in attendance at the event was Rob Rinder who looked dapper in a dark brown suit and beige striped tie. The Inheritance sees twelve strangers arrive at a grand English country estate, lured by the irresistible opportunity to inherit a chunk of a vast fortune. The fortune belonged to a glamorous benefactor known only as 'The Deceased', (played by Elizabeth) who has left video messages for the players from beyond the grave. To release money from 'The Inheritance', the players must work as a team to complete a series of challenges – and in similar vein to The Traitors; the better they perform, the more money is released, and the bigger the prize pot. But The Deceased had one condition: to win the game they must persuade all others that only they should be entrusted with the money. The event comes after Billy Ray continued to enjoy his first UK summer at Elizabeth's £6m country pile on Wednesday. The pair's relationship began following his divorce from Firerose - and his third marriage. He had met Elizabeth on set of the 2022 movie Christmas In Paradise and as he was navigating through the split, he received a message from Liz. 'I felt like, "Wow, can life get any harder? Can it get any tougher?" For me, at a certain point it was like, you can't get knocked down any flatter than laying on your back when life is kicking you. And in this moment... a friend reached out.' Billy then tried to recall the contents of the message and explained she had said, 'Hey, it looks like life might be a little bit tough and just wanted you to know I'm in your corner; you've got a friend in your corner.' When he first received the text, the performer revealed that at first he didn't know who the message was from. 'So, I text back, I go, "Who is this?" And it's like, "Elizabeth Hurley." Of all the people to reach out to me in that second that maybe I needed most… this friend who made me laugh.' He later gushed that the actress is 'a great human being' and also 'impressively brilliant.' 'She reminds me a lot of Dolly Parton. She's a very smart businesswoman. If you can laugh together, you can make it through everything.' The star also reflected on how he has also gotten close to his girlfriend's son Damian as well. 'It's great that God brought them into my life when he did. It's just a good thing. It's been a long time since I've been this happy.' Miley's mum Tish Cyrus was previously married to Billy from 1993 until their divorce was finalized in 2023. Billy shares daughter Miley as well as Noah, 25, and Braison, 31, with Tish. He also became stepfather to her other two children from a previous relationship: Brandi, 38, and Trace, 36. He is also dad to son Christopher, 33, whom he welcomed with ex Kristen Luckey. Elizabeth lives in her £6million 13-bedroom estate in Herefordshire with son Damian, who she welcomed with the late Steve Bing. The sprawling Georgian estate, which is Elizabeth's main home, also boasts five bathrooms and its own lake. She has owned Donnington Hall since 2012 that she bought with her then-fiance, Shane Warne who passed away in March 2022.
BBC News
15 minutes ago
- BBC News
Arsenal 2-3 Villarreal - send us your thoughts
Arsenal suffered a 3-2 friendly defeat by Villarreal at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday as Viktor Gyokeres made his first start for the Gunners and 15-year-old Max Dowman Pepe put the La Liga side ahead - refusing to celebrate against his former club - before Etta Eyong's close-range effort doubled the Norgaard got his first goal in Arsenal colours before half-time, but then Arnaut Danjuma broke away to stretch the visitors' advantage again.A Martin Odegaard penalty - won by Dowman - completed the did you learn from Arsenal's penultimate pre-season friendly?Get in touch with your views here
