By STEVE MASCORD
ON Friday, Mark Ramsdale and I were supposed to be at the Honourable Artillery Company in London’s financial district, braving the elements.
I was to be manning a Mascord Brownz stall selling jerseys and such. Mark was to be running the Varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge.
Instead, when I spoke to Mark around kick-off time, neither of us had been outside all day. I Don’t need to explain why unless you’re reading this in the Bahamas.
Due to the St Helens’ native’s quick thinking earlier in the week, the match was postponed seven days – meaning it didn’t have to be called off completely, as may have happened had he waited until later in the week.
“The weather isn’t good next week but it’s certainly better,” Ramsale says.
“The ground just wasn’t playable so it was relatively straightforward making a decision early but that was mostly because a lot of players would have had family and friends travelling down from the north of England.
“I appreciate travel arrangements have to be altered or cancelled and that has a national logistical impact so the sooner we cold make a decision, the better.
“The fact that we were able to have it a week later is really down to the venue. We’re really grateful to them for all the work they’ve put in the last few weeks.”
So by all means, come along on Friday. Have something to eat. Buy a jersey. But that’s not why 40-year-old Mark is our man this week.
There are a lot of people around rugby league who have done pretty amazing things whom you’ve nevertheless never heard of.
Mark helped in the early days of the Rugby League Parliamentary Group. He’s trying to set up a programme whereby people with rugby league backgrounds go to Oxford and Cambridge. He’s a tireless worker for the game in the halls of power.
“I used to go to Knowsley Road and sit on the concrete wall and bang my heals on the advertising hoarding, like a lot of people did, as a little boy,” said Ramsdale.
“As I grew up, I came down and did my first degree in London and worked around Westminster for a while and then went to Cambridge to do a second degree at the business school there but I actually went mostly to play rugby league for the light blues – which I did.
“I managed to get a degree on the back of it and while there I met a well-known rugby league MP, Greg Mulholland.
“There was a game played at Headingley – Politicians v Journalists – and I went along and I played. I had a chat with Greg after the game and he told me about the Parliamentary Rugby League Group.
“I’d been supporting parliamentary groups … I offered to help that group. I have taken a step back now, I did that for nine years. My colleague Jack Baker, he now acts as secretary to group.
“I keep my hand in by working on the Varsity game and I am technically still manager of the Political Animals, the politicians team and I’m looking to do more activities in London, in particular, and through the Rugby League Business Network, to support the game.”
What Mark does has been described thus: he deals with, and does his best to enthuse, rugby league fans who go to work in suits.
It plays into our narrative as a sport to hear Mark Ramsdale say how much prejudice he faces around Westminster and the city, how rugby union gets more leg-ups before breakfast than we’ve got since 1895.
But he’s seen no evidence of that.
“The Parliamentary Rugby League Group is very active – it’s one of the more active groups that I’m aware of,” he said.
“Of the sporting groups, it’s incredibly public-facing, it does a lot with members and associate members to promote the game in Westminster and Whitehall.
“And you’ll see in recent weeks the group has been very active in lobbying Sport Accord to have rugby league recognised as a sport in its own right and it has been very successful.
“It’s not just MPs who like the game. They actually get involved and do things.”
As we know, rugby league got its recognition via the Global Association Of International Sports Federations. Did the overtures from British pollies actually make a difference?
“Yes. You had MPs and others raising this with them and the group, I understand, wrote to the chairman, explained situation and I think it helped.
“There was a lot of talk from the general public and that helped as well. It was a combined effort.”
I last saw Mark in a part of Sydney with which he was more familiar than I, the stunningly beautiful Whale Beach on the far north shore.
With is Australian wife in a Disneyland-sized beer garden overlooking a sprawling bay, he outlined his plans now that he’s not running the Parliamentary Rugby League Group.
“I’ve had conversations with clubs in Australia to see where I can help over here,” he said.
“That’s where I think my expertise and experience can help.
“There are people out there who like the game from all walks of life and it would be great if we could appeal more to the corporate community and bring more money into the game.
“I think that’s something I can do.
“One of the things I’m really keen to put in place is a scholarship programme to help kids from rugby league backgrounds to go to Oxford and Cambridge.
“I spoke to a number of NRL clubs about it because it’s not just people from here but Australia or anywhere … to have the opportunity to go to one of the game’s best universities and get involved in rugby league there
“They don’t have to play. They can coach. They can do the website. They don’t have to be able-bodied. They don’t have to be men but they have to be giving something back to the sport because the sport’s given something to them.
“And I’ve arranged various activities over here for NRL clubs. There are opportunities. You might see them looking to emulate their Super League compatriots by coming over here.”
Oxford versus Cambridge in rugby league was unthinkable 50 years ago. Now we take it for granted – as we prepare to have a World Cup in North America.
It’s people like Mark who make these things happen.
