Followers of Mummy vs AAC will have noticed an increase in posts this year about Rugby League. For any followers outside the UK (possibly even outside the north of the UK) you can find out more about Rugby League here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_league

Daddy vs AAC and I have both followed RL since we were kids with our families. I’ve always loved watching the game ever since the very wet first game I attended with my Dad (Batley vs. Sheffield) one Friday night back when the game was played in the winter. Chilly. It’s fast, fun and compelling to watch. It’s also a friendly game. Generally fans aren’t strictly separated like in Football (by which I mean soccer) and are free to chat, mingle and share the game. 

Every year we say, ‘let’s get to more games’ and year in and year out other commitments and life have got in the way of anything more than just the occasional visit. Usually these have been when Batley Bulldogs (my team) play Bradford Bulls (Daddy vs AAC’s team, although his allegiances may well be shifting a little of late!).

This year we have made it to quite a few games, sometimes as a whole family, sometimes with wider family and sometimes just Lucy and I. 

It’s really really fun!! The atmosphere at Mount Pleasant (technically The Fox’s Biscuits Stadium) is wonderful, it’s family friendly in general (notwithstanding some occasional profanity), and it reeks of history. I’ll talk more about that in another post (the history not the profanity). 

So we’ve been to a number of games this season (and what a season to choose!!). I’ve made Lucy a specific page on her device for chatting during the game and I’ve written a post about that here. 

A couple of weeks ago Lucy was off school but not ill at all due to the 48 hour vomiting rule. She was sat in the kitchen in her wheelchair with her communication device mounted and was exploring the words. She does this a lot, it’s an important part of the process of learning to use a communication aid and learning what the words mean. There’s often no sense to be made easily from some of the things she says. 

Suddenly I heard ‘Want Go Bulldogs me’. And again ‘want Go Bulldogs me’. We were planning to go to the next game on the Sunday so I said ‘yes that’s right, we’re going on Sunday’. As ever I was uncertain how much of this had been intentional but of course I presumed it was and replied as such. I took a picture of it and sent it to the family What’sApp and posted in in the ‘Batley Bulldogs RLFC- Supporters Group’ facebook page I’d recently joined. I knew that some of the people in the group would have seen Lucy with her communication aid at games and thought it would be a nice thing to share.

That evening I had messages from club director Mark Wells, the team Mascot Battler the Bulldog (AKA Anthony Cordingley), the team Captain James Brown, Sponsor Paddy McVeigh and Callum and Ry from Rugby League Daily all wanting to give Lucy a mega day out at Batley. So she walked on with the team, got personalised home and away shirts, met some of the team and basically had a big fuss made and a lovely day!!

I’ve got so many more thoughts and reflections on this whole experience and our time spent back in the RL family this year so over the next 13 days I’m going to make 13 posts based on our experience with Rugby League.

Why 13? Because there are 13 players from each team on the field in a RL game and it just happens to be 13 days before Batley play at Wembley (yes WEMBLEY!!).