Originally published 4th May 2016, at 18:56 here: http://eepurl.com/b0x_pb

An open letter from out-going executive producer of The Greenwich Show, Ian Ramsdale:

In 2014 I set up The Greenwich Show; a television programme that celebrates life in the borough.

The multi-skilled voluntary team I’ve been able to assemble has steadily tried to built the programme’s a profile as one of a serious player in the broadcasting industry; connecting with residents, businesses, filmmakers and anyone who shows a passion for championing events in Greenwich.

But in my capacity as the person currently calling the shots, I’ve taken the programme as far as I can - but there’s so much potential to propel it towards new ventures in the future...

It's not through lack of want or desire on my behalf - but circumstance - that now it's time for someone else's to have a go.

The contributions of my small but dedicated team have helped me deliver two series; seven episodes, more than 30 films, 175 minutes of broadcasting. We’ve amassed more than 2000 social media followers, a large distribution list, a website, YouTube channel and a positive bank balance. Our HD camera is our solitary asset - paid for by the programme revenues.

I’ve already put in place some plans for a possible new series with support for the programme at an all time high. The plans include support, in principle, film project - backed by a filmmaking Trust - to tie-in with the broadcasts.

But in order to deliver it, someone else will have to take it on; pick up this wonderful project and take it to levels that it has the potential to reach; a securing additional funding, sponsorship or grants; connecting with residents, societies, businesses and organisations; running marketing and social media campaigns; offering broadcasting experience to those aspiring filmmakers, broadcasters and producers. The list could go on.

My ultimate aim was always to create a sustainable, commercial programme - and that is certainly achievable. I will offer my support and advice as an associate producer, if desired, but what The Greenwich Show needs is someone who can supercede the passion, drive, desire, motivation and expertise I’ve brought to the programme, to drive it on so it can weave more into everyday life in the borough.

Is that you?

ian@thegreenwichshow.co.uk

A fanzine to run alongside my #RLDS podcast is being launched.

The editors of the new fanzine about rugby league in the South of England are looking for contributors.
 
Titled “Rugby League Down South” (#RLDS) it will run alongside the popular podcast of the same name and will launch in February 2016 at the London Broncos first home game of the season.
 
It will centre around comment, opinion and contributions from fans - as well as stories and interviews from writers and journalists in the south - covering issues from the top echelons of the sport to the grassroots and amateur game.
 
The publication is the brainchild of George Clarke - who is covering rugby league in the capital for the popular rugby league newspaper, the League Express. 
 
“I hope we can create a community-style magazine which offers content that is informative, witty, and thought-provoking from people at every level of the game, and from Ashford and Aylesbury to Yarmouth and Yeading.”
 
“We have spoken to a number of potential contributors before deciding to launch the fanzine, and are now looking for others to contribute content for our monthly publications.
 
George has previously been involved with Newcastle Thunder’s monthly magazine, as well as seeing the fantastic strides other independent publications have made in rugby league, particularly the Hull FC Fanzine - Up The Cream!
 
“Setting up alongside Ian Ramsdale’s #RLDS podcast, and it’s well established and highly respected umbrella, also gives us a great platform from which to launch.
 
The popular #RLDS podcast was set up in 2011 by Ian Ramsdale, a broadcaster and journalist who began to regularly cover the sport on BBC London in 2008. 
 
“I’ve always been passionate about rugby league in the South and the creation of the #RLDS Fanzine will provide another quality outlet for coverage of the game in an area where it can often be out of the media spotlight.
 
If you wish to volunteer content, contributors are encouraged to email their ideas and suggestions to rlds_@hotmail.com 
 
The fanzine hopes to continually develop its content and is keen to include fans, coaches, players, volunteers, parents, chairman, owners, chief executives…
The first copy is set to go on sale on the 14th of February, when the South’s highest ranking side - the London Broncos; kick off their Championship campaign against the Swinton Lions at the Ealing Trailfinders Ground.
 
It’s hoped the fanzine will be available to purchase at a number of venues on match days in the South of England as well as on London Broncos home fixture days for £2.50. It will also be available to purchase online for £3 (including P&P) at www.r-l-d-s.myshopify.com

It was certainly worth setting the alarm and spending an hour with my camera in the garden. An incredible sight.

I'd woken just over an hour earlier - at the time the lunar eclipse was due to start, and the moon was still just a brilliant, bright white glow. Heading into the garden an hour later, the orange glow of the moon was eerie yet fascinating.

Getting the camera focused was difficult, with the moon so dark (and probably not helped by the tungsten streetlight behind us - although that did replicate a similar orange glow for the garden and houses, to match the blood red moon).

Not until 2033 will we see another lunar eclipse at the same time that the moon is at it's closest point to earth, in orbit. Put it in your diary - it's certainly worth getting up for. Although be prepared for the inquisitive, bleary eyed looks from the neighbours... 

Being a engineering and architecture graduate, I have more than an average appreciation of building design.

I recently 'climbed' the Oslo Opera House - which has become my new favourite building.

I'm told it was meant to look like an iceberg. I thought it more like a futuristic yacht.

The exterior and roof is open to the public.  Just be careful if you're up there on roller skates, a skate board or 'heelies'... 

You could end up in the fjord...

I just don’t buy it. 

Why is it so bad that the international rugby competition beginning this weekend is called the Rugby World Cup - not the Rugby Union World Cup?

I've seen plenty comment, argument and upset over calls for a "missing word". Really?!

Does it really matter?

I mean, just because the Rugby League World Cup is so called, does that mean the other code has to mirror the naming convention? (When have they ever wanted to copy what the other code does anyway?!)

Is there the same hoo-har about Rugby League 9s and Rugby 7s?

I see the reasoning; I understand the argument; but, really, is it that bad?

So you’ll say: it’s disrespectful because it’s like they’re “not acknowledging that league exists” - because they’re not specifying...

Well, there’s rugby league, rugby union, rugby train station, rugby college… it doesn’t say Rugby League, so it’s not rugby league.

Ah, so you’ll say: but people might not know about rugby league if they don’t differentiate - and that’s knocking a nail in League...

Well if people/fans/spectators/viewers/listeners are ignorant enough to not know the difference between the two codes - then that’s a wider issue than purely the name of the competition. No?

Ah, so you’ll say: but people will think that the game they see is “rugby” and won’t know about RL - and that could have a negative impact on people paying attention to League.

But if the RWC2015 gets more profile and exposure and, let’s face it, terestrial TV and national radio coverage in the UK than the RLWC2013 then isn’t that a wider issue than purely the name of the competition. No?

And could it not raise the profile of oval ball football generally - and benefit some league clubs? Kids play “rugby” when they start learning the game (again, let’s face it, it’s rugby league initially when you’re young even when training at a union club) so anything that encourages them to pick up an oval ball is good, no?

As ever, since the split, it’s likely to be geography that determines any future impact. If a parent/fan/viewer/listener Googles “rugby club in [place name where they live]” I wonder what different results they’ll get if they put in: Sheffield, Leicester, Coventry or Oxford.

I’m reliably informed that RL had the chance to sue the RWC as Red Hall owned the name - but for financial reasons  chose not to.

Maybe it was just common sense, like me they just didn’t see how - really - it matters that much.

Most of all, isn’t it too much effort to get pent up about it? Doesn’t it just make league fans the moaning, poor relation that union fans think they are? Shouldn’t they just be doing more to promote our game? The chip, it seems, is firmly on our own shoulder - we should know, we put it there!

Rugby League is our brand. Rugby League.

If the RWC2015 were calling their competition the "Alternative Rugby League World Cup" then I might have joined the argument. But they’re not.

This season I’ve enjoyed a very different matchday perspective.

After years of watching Broncos' games from the press box - mostly wearing headphones and hearing very little else than the sound of my own voice - my role as the match day announcer this year has been a fascinating eye-opener into many other aspects of a match day.

I feel very privileged to have been asked to fulfil the role. At the start of the season, I almost couldn't believe I was allowed to be in the dug-out during the games. There was so much 'inside information' that I was party to; like conversations between coaching staff, officials and players.

Over the span year I've got to know a few of the club's 'calls' for certain times of the game. I'm not sure I'd be able to write them all here - not that I've any idea what most of them actually mean - but I loved the shout of 'Hammer Time' last week - I'd not heard that one before then.

One element of the game you get to see rather close up are the aftermath of any injures. Players will take the place on the bench, later in the game, with ice-packs, crutches, blood stained shirts and the lot. It can often bring a little more context to the game you're watching unfold before you. (And you're also party to the odd player's bodily function...). 

Often when you're doing a broadcast commentary of the game, being no where near the technical area anyway, you are too consumed with the goings-on in the game to be able to get injury updates - which is why you often hear from touchline reporters, as they can get the information.

The most insightful element for me, this year, has been being around the match officials. I'll often speak to them to clarify numbers for interchanges - but I've been lucky enough to have short conversations with the match commissioner following certain incidents in the matches. I've even had a number of decisions explained to me during the game - with the match commissioner having an earpiece and being able to hear the referee's comments.

Above all, though, the thing that has been most evident to me, having been in this situation this season, is how well the club carries itself. The demonstration of the high standards that are expected here. Even in the face of defeat or feeling hard-done by the professionalism and demeanour of everyone involved with the club has been of the highest order. 

It's almost impossible to put it into words, with it being an almost passive action. It can often be what is not done - or the way it's carried out -  rather than the actual action.

And, I guess, sometimes with things not going your way, maintaining elements of those standards can be difficult. But the club have impressed me - and impressed me in areas that I've not been able to experience before.

And I'm privileged to have been able to do so.

* Addition to published piece *


And I think I reached my peak when Sean Morris crossed for his record breaking fifth try in this final game of the season... My confidence at an all time high with mic in hand and Broncos storming to victory, I announced: "Hi fives for the London Broncos try scorer, number 26 - Sean Morris!".

Every sport loves a superstar. In fact, modern-day sport can’t survive without them. 

“Had the phrase only been coined at the turn of the [20th] century, Anthony Arthur Starks would have been termed a “Superstar” of the game,” wrote journalist Chris Parks, who covered Hull Kingston Rovers for the BBC for 20 years, "He was surely one of the greatest forwards of all time, and certainly one of Rovers' best ever players whatever era he played in."

Starks captained the first England rugby league side - and in doing so became England's first ever dual-code international. He grew up in Castleford, playing for the town's RFC side, and gaining Yorkshire representative honours and well as two England caps. He joined Hull KR in 1896 - after the great divide, and played with them in the the Northern Union, when they joined in 1899. His 23 call-ups for Yorkshire in the Northern Union, is a record that still stands.

It was a wet Tuesday afternoon in 1904 - April the 5th - that Starks seeming inadvertently wrote himself into the record books. The "skillful hardworking forward" strode his 5'11", 13 stone frame onto the pitch at Central Park, Wigan, leading out the first ever England rugby league international side. What had started as an idea of an annual New Year's Day game of Northern Union had been rescheduled - after the pitch in Oldham pitch was deemed unplayable in January due to severe frost. It was, instead, played on a day of considerable April showers.

As he took to the field, the prop - who also had a useful kicking game - became the one of World's first dual-code internationals - along with Welshman Jack Rhapps who he faced as part of the “Other Nationalities” team. He was England's first dual-code international.

England lost the game 3-9.

But purely stats and achievements don't give someone superstar quality.

In 1946 - some 37 years after he had retired - Starks received a testimonial. By this point he was said to be "in reduced circumstances" by friend and fan Ron Smalley, who knew Anthony in the 1940s, writing about him being a "great player for Rovers". By this time Starks had also had one of his legs amputated, which is believed to have been a consequence of World War One, but the full circumstances are not known. 

A collection was taken inside and outside the ground and the Daily Mail, on Tuesday July 2nd 1946, shows Starks surrounded by fans and directors of the club, wearing a dark suit and waistcoat, light coloured tie and holding a walking stick in his left hand. He's receiving a cheque for £271 from the Hull KR chairman, Ernest Mowforth.

Considering the entrance fee at Craven Park that year was 1/6d that was quite a considerable sum. It would be worth about £8,000 today. Although Starks had scored two tries in the first official Hull derby - on 16th September 1899, which The Robins won 8-2 - so no wonder people gave generously.

But not just talented and respected - he was a gentleman too. After losing the only Challenge Cup Final in which he played - in 1905 (6-0 at Headingley against Warrington) he led his team to the trophy presentation area to shake hands with the entire opposition - and toasted the health of the winners, drinking from the Cup.

Yet he wasn't all white. The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent on April 4th 1892 reports that Anthony and his brother, Fred, along with eight others were "severally fined in sums of 9s. 6d. each and costs for gambling with coins on the 26th nit" - presumably in the street. Most players keep it inside the team bus now, don't they?

Starks made his final appearance for Hull KR in a first round Yorkshire Cup defeat, against Leeds, on 9th November 1907. Records from his first three seasons with the Robins are fairly sketchy, but from the start of the 1899 season, he ended up making 208 appearances for them, scoring 31 tries and kicking 72 goals.

I learned of Anthony from my mum's cousin, who's spent many years researching our family tree. He's discovered that Anthony was the brother of my three-times great grandmother - making him my three-times great uncle. And we're all keen to find out more about our family superstar.

Anthony Starks: 11 Aug 1873 - Jan 1952.

Personally, it’s been a challenging start to 2015, but things are getting back up to speed now.

As always with a new year comes new things, well - promises, at least. And I’ve got plenty things going on in 2015. I’m not one for writing personal blogs, as such - I prefer writing about someone, or something else (usually rugby league!) - but we'll see how this goes…! 


First up, a website redesign. I’d be keen to know what you think - and whether it’s useful in any way for you. I’m planning to produce a new series of my Rugby League Down South podcasts in 2015, although with my work commitments I’m not sure how regular they’ll be. It’s set to be an interesting year for the game all round, specially teams in the South. And with the podcast passing 28,000 plays last week (adding in the YouTube plays, it’s about 30,000 which was my target when I set out on a second series, last year) your continued support and listens/downloads would be highly valued.

In the last few weeks I’ve found out more about the dual-code international who, a few months ago, I was told was a distant relation of mine. He had a very successful and fascinating career and there are a few people looking into his life and career - so more on that topic soon…

Of the new things, having moved into Hampshire last year, I’ve been working part-time at new local TV station That’s Solent, as a programme editor - whilst continuing my role at BBC London. It’s been a challenge since launching in November 2014, but a great test of my journalistic, editorial and technical credentials. 

There’s also a number of people working behind the scenes to bring about a new series of The Greenwich Show, which I launched in September 2014, as the executive producer and director. Hopefully more concrete news on that soon. 

On other notes, as it’s a different style of blog… I’m not usually one for watching feature films, but have had two trips to the cinema since the turn of the year. 
A Theory of Everything - worth seeing; Steven Hawking is an extraordinary man.
Into the Woods - disappointing.

And the turn of the year I also hadn’t decided my new year’s resolution. Having kept last year’s promise for an entire year for the first time I was keen to have another for this year. Hanging up on an unwanted phone call the other day, I knew what my resolution would be. That’ll create a considerable amount of more time to attempt to cram all this in...

Let me know what you think of the website.

Best wishes for 2015.

Ian