All Golds v NW Crusaders KPL1S 2017 Final

Some simply stuck to their
old names - Workington
are still Town and St Helens
the Saints (although there
is a St Bernard mascot) and
you can still find Rovers
at Featherstone and Hull
Kingston.
is, allegedly, the pie eating
capital of the world. But I
digress).
Halifax bucked the trend
and for some strange reason
decided to be known as the
Blue Sox and had the daftest
pair of mascots in the league
Billy and Bluey whose
behaviour was akin to that
of adolescent schoolboys.
Mercifully for the good
folk of Halifax the Blue
Sox moniker was quietly
dropped and the mascots
consigned to the dustbin
(Room 101?)of history.
Just about the only thing
Oldham were the best at
in the early days of Super
League was their mascot -
Buster the Bear - kitted out
in a rather careworn Bear
outfit.
imploded after relegation
from Super League.
Buster was an ex-amateur
rugby league player known
as Braddy and his antics
would light up many a dull
moment at Watersheddings.
I was privileged to witness
his finest hour in a match at
the
‘Sheddings against
Warrington. During the half
time interval Buster was
doing his best to fire up the
Wolves fans congregated
behind the posts when a
Wolves fan, who may or
may not have had one or
two brown lemonades (beer
to you apple juice drinkers)
floored the bear with a
sneaky tackle from behind.
Whilst the fan was taking the
applause of his compatriots
he was caught unawares
and nearly snapped in two
by the finest tackle ever seen
by a Bear on a rugby pitch.
Don’t suppose you’d get
away with that these days
but things were different in
the 90s.
New kids on the block
Toronto decided one was
not enough and have
acquired a whole Wolfpack
– no wonder they are
devouring the other League
1 teams!
So today it is the All Golds
versus the Crusaders.
North Wales kept the
Crusaders tag from their
first incarnation as the Celtic
Crusaders and the All Golds
are, of course, named after
the New Zealand tourists
who beat the Northern
Union (Great Britain) in
the deciding third test at
Cheltenham in 1908 and
were sneeringly called the
All Golds, instead of the All
Blacks, in New Zealand as
they were professionals.
Nobody has come up with
any ideas how to make a
Golden Fern into a mascot
yet, though, but Albert the
Griffin is a pretty good
second choice!
PS: The story of the Oldham
Bears mascot is completely
true – as Max Boyce would
say “I was there!”
7
Oldham were always known
as the Roughyeds, and are
again, possibly due to the
less than gentle nature of the
town or the local hat making
industry but became known
as the Bears until the club
Some clubs have dropped
their new names - nobody
calls Whitehaven the
Warriors any more, Hunslet
are no longer the Hawks,
Hull no longer the Sharks
and Coventry have acquired
the Bears tag Oldham
had, Catalans likewise
Doncaster’s Dragon.
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