Is this best opening line to a RL match report ever?:

Richard Owen is clearly a player whose appetite for the fray is not diminished when there is a bit of a nip in the air. The Castleford full-back, whose exploits this winter included getting himself arrested for fighting with a man dressed as Father Christmas, scored two tries and made another as he spoiled Salford's festivities.

Keep it up Dave H!!

Brilliant!

Genius!

The Independent's loss.

Just a point of clarification though - was Richard wearing the Father Christmas suit or was it the guy he was fighting? I think we have a right to know.

Fair point -unclear writing!

I can sort that for you,he Rich Owen was not wearing a santa suit,the guy(Waky fan) whose jaw Owen broke was !

I hope this clarifys the situation.

Not at all. The clue is in the punctuation and syntax. Hadfield is far too accomplished a writer to allow for the ambiguity you suggest. Read it again very carefully and you should come to the conclusion that Owen's adversary was the one in costume.

Having (hopefully) cleared that up I have to say Dave Hadfield is one of the most inspired and entertaining writers that RL will ever have the honour to be associated with.

And he had a chat to some us in the Goose when he attended a Leigh match last season.

A very nice bloke too. Think it was our game against the Catalans.

You are spot on with that Frank, it was that game.

And he's a Leyther n'all

His best line last year was "the Australian Schoolboys are touring the A579(?) past LSV" when it snowed and they played here twice due to the freezing conditions in Whitehaven and Castleford.