Welcome to our Christmas edition of BULLieve
In this is what will be our last edition now till after Christmas and more than likely till next year, we have packed quite a bit in this edition, we hope you enjoy reading.
Recap from The Provident Stadium.
Spotlight on 1863.
Focus on Kabuki Syndrome,
Chat with a Bradford lad and Darts Player Joe Cullen.
Mentions.
Recap,
The good news still keeps rolling out of Odsal and not a ball has been kicked yet, Marc Green has certainly kept his foot on the pedal ensuring that the long term stability of the club remains his priority. With the launch of the new 1863 membership, the members day was a huge success, players were involved to hand out the special packs associated with the membership, and the day had speeches from Jimmy lowes and players alike.
The membership has proved to be a huge success and has now passed the 2,100 milestone, there are
around 10 weeks till the new season begins and hopes are high that the initial 4,000 target can be reached. With the membership itself there are some great benefits and deals to be had, recent deals have been savings on photography and teeth whitening with many more offers to be announced on a weekly basis from the bulls.
It has also just been revealed that you are now able to join the 1863 Members club for just £60, this has been named The Kick Off membership, as a member you still receive the exclusive 1863 pack, discount at 100's of businesses, £5 off a replica shirt, entry to a match of your choice and invites to exclusive member only events and e-mails. This is a fantastic opportunity to show your support for the Bulls if you wish to join you can do so by Clicking here
One major talking point from the 1863 members day was the all new Away strip for 2015.
The strip is nothing like we have had in recent years and it has gone down a storm with the fans who can now pre order the shirt for only £10 by CLICKING HERE
You can also view the official shirt launch video HERE
The final announcement of the 1863 members day was to be the captain for 2015, many names were being thrown around and one that came to light quite a lot was Lee Gaskell after last seasons stand out performances. But the choice was to be Chev Walker, Chev has a huge range of experience from the last 16 years to pull from and hopefully guide us through a successful 2015.
Chev thanked fans and everyone else who sent him messages of support and said he has a " head down, arse up " approach to his work and "if its something worth doing, then to do it right".
Linking in with our hugely successful 1863 membership, we thought it was time to take a look at where it all began and how.
Prior to 1863 a very crude form of football had been played in England, the rules varied tremendously from region to region. As the 1860's began to unfold, two distinct sets of playing rules began to emerge. One was where the ball was kicked around on the floor with the hands not being used at all, the other allowed for the ball to be caught in the air but to be immediately to be placed on the ground.
In the winter of 1863 a young gentleman named Oates Ingham who owned the Lingfield Dyeworks on Thornton Road in Bradford decided, along with some friends and associates from Framham College, to form their own football club. The rules were that a player was allowed to catch the ball by a means of a fair catch, but it meant they could not run with it, this left the player in question open to attack. Under the rules of that time, a player running with the ball could be repeatedly kicked about the shins by his opponent until he dropped the ball.
Like the now famous moment when William Webb Ellis in 1923 whilst at Rugby School, picked up the ball and ran with it, this feature of the game became more common during the 1860's which began the gradual move to what we now know as Rugby Union.
At this time Bradford was one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, mainly due to its association with the wool trade, it only seemed fitting that they should form a sporting club of some type. In fact they were the first Yorkshire side to do so, apart from themselves the only other clubs that had been formed were Liverpool and Edinburgh Academicals both in 1857 and then Blackheath in 1858.
Bradford's first home game was on the Horton Cricket Club Ground on All Saints Road near to where ST. Lukes hospital now stands. They only remained here for 2 years before being asked to leave by the committee, because of the damage they caused to the ground. They had several "grounds" in the early start including a piece of open land on Laisterbridge lane although this was very brief, then a move to the Manningham area on North park Road, eventually to settle on land which is now peel park, and then to a disused piece of land in the Girlington area.
Apart from trying to find a settled venue, the side in the early days found it difficult to arrange fixtures, with very few clubs who played there types of rules, most games between 1863-1868 were a Captain's side V a Secretary's side or a game against a university formation.
The number in a team could vary greatly and up to a total of 30 a side, but in most cases settled around the 20 mark. Oates Ingham decided that if the club was going to progress then it needed much firmer foundations. With this in mind in 1866 the Bradford Rugby Club was officially brought into being.
By 1874 it emerged that a better ground was required to sustain the clubs growth, so for the 6th time in 11 years it was moving time again, and over to Apperley Bridge. The first season at there new "home" was highly successful in the 1874/75 season by wining every single match and not conceding any points at all. Although the English Rugby union was formed in 1871 it did not bring the team any silverware as a league format had not yet been introduced. The E.R.U was basically formed to finalise the set of rules all teams would play under, and each individual club were left to arrange their own fixtures.
Whilst at Apperley Bridge during the 1870's came a threat to there existence they had been there for 5 years, when in 1879 talks of a rival side in the city put everything in doubt, Bradford Cricket, Athletic and football club had been formed and built a new ground at Park Avenue, this was in easy reach of the City Centre, and had a railway link running alongside the ground, it was thought that the Bradford Public would only travel to the nearest venue. Bradford Rugby Club voiced their opinions and anger at these formations and pointed out that the Rugby club were in danger of folding, eventually talks were entered and meant that the Rugby club would move once again over to Park Avenue. There first match at P.A was in 1880 on 25th September when they lost to Bradford Rangers, in the end the move turned out to be fruitful as it brought more recognition to the club and it was a fine venue and attracted better sides such as Harlequins, Hull, Dewsbury, Salford, Rochdale, Halifax to name but a few playing on the English Rugby Union Code.
In the final decade of the E.R.U Bradford became one of the most feared sides in the country, especially on there own ground. The calibre of players that played for the club were some of the best around at the time.
In late 1894 a dispute took place from the rugby players stating their anger at having to take time off work to play for the club, by breaking time from work made the pay packets short and wanted some restitution to the situation. Over the next few months meetings took place and often bitter arguments were not rare to be heard, after several meetings the clubs involved including Bradford broke the deadlock over the dispute when on August 28th 1895 at the George Hotel in Huddersfield they decided to resign from the E.R.U and set up their own independent ruling body under the name of Northern Rugby Union. 22 of the North's main sides had finally had enough of southern ruling and attitude and decided to go it alone Rugby League was born. It must be noted that the Northern name was not added on until 1907 and it was to identify that Rugby football was still being played in the city.
Focus on Kabuki Syndrome.
We have a very good reason for wishing to focus on this very rare syndrome, Tom (one of the writer's) son Stuart has this extremely rare condition which took some time to diagnose and Stuart is a huge Bradford Bulls fan. We hope that we can raise some awareness of this very rare Genetic condition.
Kabuki syndrome is a disorder that affects many parts of the body. It is quite rare affecting approximately 1 in 32,000 newborns. Identified in 1981 by two Japanese groups it is named Kabuki syndrome because the facial resemblance of affected individuals with white Kabuki makeup a Japanese traditional theatrical form. Children with this syndrome are called Kabuki kids or KKS.
Stuart has these characteristics, development delay, hearing problems, speech problems, weak muscle tone, small head size, cleft palate, eye problems (Duanes syndrome), a wide variety of other health problems can occur with people having Kabuki syndrome.
One of the causes for Kabuki is when there are mutations in the KMT2D gene, it is inherited in an way that one copy of the altered gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the disorder, there are other causes too but we don't to go into too much technical detail please if you wish to learn more have a google on the subject and have a read. It took us a while for us a family to have this diagnosed because of its rarity, but even as a child we knew something just wasn't quite right. He's a happy lad all in all loves his Bulls and most importantly his Steam engines at the N.Y.M.R. We asked Stuart a few questions about Bulls and here is his little chat with BULLieve.
Q. So Stuart we have to ask you, this you been going to Bulls now for a while with Mum, Dad and brother what's your favourite part of going and who is your favourite player.
A. My favourite player is Matty Blythe, I always enjoy it when the Bulls win, because Dad isn't grumpy then in the car on the way home.
Q. What has been your most Favourite moment of watching the Bulls.
A. When I was a Mascot and got to walk out onto the pitch with all the players. (If anyone can recall it was the first home game of 2013 against Wakefield and Stuart wouldn't leave the pitch) I also enjoyed meeting the players after a match that was cool.
A. I'm looking to forward to seeing Bullman again, and yes I hope they can get promoted, i'm just hoping they win a lot of games as Dad wont be grumpy and miserable when they lose. And we can also go see Steam Trains too.
Thanks for your very valuable time Stuart much appreciated indeed. Well we hoped you enjoyed that insight into Kabuki, he is a lovely lad despite his few issues but he never complains and just gets on with everything day to day. There is actually only 1 UK charity that supports families affected by Kabuki. Should you wish to take a look at there website please do so by Clicking here
Stuart with one of his most favourite engines A4 Pacific "Sir Nigel Gresley"
Chat with Bradford lad and Darts Player Joe Cullen.
When we first heard the draw for the Darts World Championships, one of our stand out fixtures for us was Joe Cullen to face "Mighty" Michael Van Gerwen, ok so he's not a Bulls fan but he is a Rugby League fan and a Bradford lad, we asked Joe if he would speak to us, and very graciously has taken a bit of time out to speak to BULLieve. We wont hold it against him that he is a Wigan fan though, and Joe has beaten some of the best in the World of Darts including his first round opponent, to mention a few the, 16 time World Champion Phil "The Power" Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Andy Hamilton, Dave Chisnall and The "Bull" Terry Jenkins.
Joe first burst onto the scene in 2008 when qualifying for the UK Open, he then quit his job as a postman in 2009 to concentrate on his Darts Career. The world championships have not been kind to Joe over the years and has never progressed any further than the 1st round, he came close in 2011 but lost out 3~2 to Terry Jenkins lets hope this year Joe can finally get that monkey off his back and go further.
Hi Joe thanks for talking to us so here are a few questions we have put together for you, we wish you all the very best for this years 2014 championships.
Q. How did your Darts Career all begin, and what did it feel like that first time to win at a tournament.
A. I really enjoyed it, originally my dad entered me in the qualifier but I actually didn't know what I was qualifying for.!!! It was a real buzz my 1st time and a moment I wont forget.
Q. How does it feel to stand up on stage with Phil Taylor, the guy is a legend, how are your nerves and do you think well might as well go home now, but you have beat him and how does that feel.
A. If I cant get up for a game against the greatest ever, then your in the wrong game!! Its a strange one really, your nervous to start with, then relaxed in the middle, then if your in with a chance of beating Phil the nerves just come back, which is completely normal. Its an unbelievable feeling beating him though.
Q. You start this years tournament with a huge game against the current World Champion, but you have beat him before is there any secret or do you just play your own game.
A.I have beaten Mike a fair few times, including the last time we met, which I won. There is no real strategy against mike, if you try tactics eg: slowing him down etc then your taking away the standard of your own performance.
Q. Moving onto Rugby now Joe you are a huge Wigan fan, how do you feel about the Bulls demise from once a great side now into the Championship and there well documented demise can they bounce back.
A. Yeah I'm a big Wigan fan mad, I go to most home games. The Bulls is a funny one for me, I used to really hate them which was probably due to the amount of success they had. But now I don't really dislike or like them. I hope they get back into super league next season though, they're too good to be down there.
Q. You have a long way to go yet with your career, but so far what are your highlights, and if you could give any advice to anyone just starting out in the game what would it be and what to do.
A. My biggest highlight is beating Phil Taylor. Especially as he was dominating all the time, Qualifying for the world matchplay too. Great place to play darts. I would advise youngsters to always believe you can beat anyone, no one has a god given right to always win. And if your serious about the game, dedicate yourself as much as possible, practice wise, time wise, everything.
Q. Going back to Rugby League Joe, which team will stand out for you this coming season and do you think that the change of promotion and relegation will improve the game further.
A. I genuinely think Wigan are the team to beat this year, with Joel Tomkins coming back last year . and Mossop this year, we are starting to look really strong everywhere. Matty smith has come into his own and one of your former players, John Bateman was outstanding last year.
I'm glad they changed it back (Relegation/Promotion) it was getting a bit farcical.
Joe we thank you so much for your time to talk to us we could have chatted all night but we appreciate how busy you are, we sincerely hope you have a great time at the World Championships and we wish you all the very best good luck Joe and thank you.
Mentions
We have a few mentions this week before Christmas and some belated Happy Birthdays too, so we shall begin with those Happy Birthday to Paul Ashworth, Gareth Goddard, Alison Shearer-Hall, Thomas Fynn and Matthew Elliot, we hope you all had a great time. For the Birthdays upcoming Many Happy Returns to Judith Boyes and Amanda Richardson we hope you have a fab day and please not too much wine save some for Santa.
Don't forget as well if your still struggling for those last few gifts we do still have our BULLieve phone cases on sale at a very reasonable price of £9.00 and in different colours for most makes and models @AttitudeCases you can also have a look at there other great phone cases and they have 1000's of designs to suit almost everyone so if you wish to have a look you can do so by Clicking Here
There is also still time to purchase the Ultimate gift for any Rugby league fan with Rugby League on DVD membership is just £10 for life and can watch over 1000 and more of the biggest and best games ever played online. So if you know that someone who is having serious withdrawl symptons then have a look by Clicking Here
BULLieve T-shirts are also in the pipeline for 2015, as we are working on some designs at the moment, whom we mainly thank Louise Woodward Styles for our fabulous creations. When these are available to buy there will be a small percentage donated to the Bulls Foundation. Please be patient, these will transpire into early next year.
For those of you that follow our Facebook page you will be aware of Jay and Sami's youngest daughter "Baby Bull" who bless her has not had the easiest start In life and I believe is now being tested for cystic fibrosis, our love and thoughts are with you at this what must be a truly difficult time for you all, we are all thinking about you and wish you all the very best indeed. Ella has spent some time in hospital this month, and remains there too at this moment, its never nice to see a child suffer ever especially near Christmas too, but we are all thinking about you and sending our love and thoughts. Get well soon Ella we all love you very much.
Don't also forget the next time you visit Odsal there is also a new addition to the bar our very own Bulls Bitter, you will be able to enjoy a pint for £3.00 as a 1863 member or £3.30 for non members, it will be available from bars throughout Odsal and in the conferencing and banqueting suites, early reports are its very nice.
We also would like to thank Marc Green for the continued stability, of which the Bulls have not had for many of a year now, your continued visions are working and once again the fans feel that we are part of the club again, we would also like to thank Ryan Sparks of the Bradford Bulls media team for his continued support too of which we thank you Ryan.
We thank you all for your continued support and taking your time to read our blog in 2014. BULLieve also has a couple of announcements in the new year which are quite exciting and would like to speak to any fan who regularly visits Home and Away matches for our new feature, View From The Terrace. We are also looking to completely change the page in the future and add some new ideas so were open to any suggestions you may have. We hope you all have a fantastic time over the festive period but most of all stay safe and don't have too much turkey.
Last but not least we wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we hope Santa brings you all your Bulls goodies you have wished for, were hoping for the away shirt ;)
One quick reminder to you all we don't think you will but please don't drink and drive its not worth it, all the very best and don't stop BULLieving.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.
