Travelling north east again we stopped for breakfast at Monmouth for no other reason than we were hungry. As with so many towns in the UK, Monmouth has its connections with history - it is the birthplace of King Henry V. It also boasts a mediaeval bridge from the 13th Century which is the only one of its type still remaining in Britain; a pretty bridge but an ordinary looking town.

Our destination for the next four nights was Wakefield. This spot was chosen for its location. Our hotel is about 24km from Leeds and the same distance from Huddersfield. It is also close to Bradford, York and not far from Manchester. This area is Rugby League heartland and also hosts 2 games for the RWC this weekend. We had managed to purchase tickets for a Super League game on Friday night and also for one of the RWC games on Saturday.

We spent Friday checking out the area and the venues for our games. Leeds United Football Club's field at Elland Road was the venue for the Rugby so we went to check out parking options and to see if we could pick up our tickets that we had purchased on-line. Parking was sorted when we spoke to the owner of the newsagency opposite the stadium - he was selling his parking spots for £10 for the day so we reserved a spot. We were unable to pick up our tickets as they could only be collected on match day - Saturday.

Next stop was John Smith Stadium at Huddersfield - our venue for the Super League game on Friday night. Again we had purchased our tickets on-line a few days before. No problems collecting tickets and parking was also purchased for £5 in the stadium's car park, right beside the field.

While driving around the area we realised that we were also not far away from Batley, the home of Padgett's Motorcycle Dealership. Padgett's are also owners of Padgett's Racing who enter bikes in the Isle of Man TT and Irish Road racing series as well as some track races. Padgetts are also renowned for having old-new stock, bikes that are brand new with zero miles on the speedo but are 20 - 30 years old, they are now collectors items worth a fortune. Even though we had been to Padgett's before, who could be in this area and not visit again? The dealership is spread over three shops and sells all Japanese makes as well as second-hand bikes. The company spans 3 generations of the family. Today we were very lucky and met the founding father of the company - Peter Padgett. Greg and Peter chatted for at least an hour as Peter gave us a guided tour of the business and showed us many famous bikes including Ian Hutchinson's 5 bikes from the 2010 Isle of Man TT - only man to ever win all 5 races. All of these bikes are displayed with their laurel wreaths presented to the winners. Other bikes on display included Dan Kneen's Ulster GP Honda and a group of five bikes, brand new but from the 1980's, that had a total of 4 miles between them on the speedos. We were then taken upstairs to see more of the bikes that Padgett's has won titles with - these are not on view for the public so we felt very privileged to be shown these bikes. Also in the shop when we visited were Peter's wife, his son Clive, daughter Cath and a grandson.

Greg has been a Rugby League follower since he was a young lad and has memories of reading about the Kangaroo Tours of England from the 1960's. He has mentioned many times on previous trips to the UK that he would like to see a Rugby League game here but we have never been around when the season was on - until now. The Super League is the equivalent of the NRL in Australia. Most of the teams in this competition are based in the Midlands. Our game was between Huddersfield Giants and Leeds Rhinos. This game would determine who would finish on top of the ladder. Kick off was at 8pm. Our seats were in amongst the Huddersfield supporters right on half way. The capacity of the stadium was 24 500; the attendance at this game was only 9 326 however it sounded like there was way more spectators than that as the Giants fans sang and chanted throughout the game. The visiting team, Leeds, had about 3 000 spectators who all sat together behind the goal posts - the home and away spectators are always separated at these games, even entering through their own gates. All the usual pre-match entertainment was provided by the cheerleaders, the Giants mascot entertained the crowd and the junior teams came out to play at half-time. Of course the referee was blind and he cheated whenever Leeds scored. The game was a close one right up until the last few minutes when Leeds scored against the run of play and won 20 to 16.

Our next event was the Rugby World Cup game between Canada and Italy. Again, the locals adopted one of the teams - more red jumpers in the crowd - so I guess Canada was the favourite. Our seats were close to half way but up very high, not Greg's favourite spot and we couldn't see the big screen! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the atmosphere of the RWC at Elland Road Stadium which holds 37 914 spectators when full; tonight's crowd was 33 120 even though the two teams were not British. The game was closer than we expected with the half-time score at 13 - 10 to Italy. Canada scored a quick try just after half-time to lead 15 -13. The final score was Italy 23 and Canada 18. We returned to our hotel to watch Wales defeat England - the Wallabies will need to play well to beat either of those 2 teams!

To complete our weekend of sport we spent the day in the hotel bar - no, not drinking but watching Sky Sports. This weekend was MotoGP in Aragon. We watched Moto 3, followed by Moto 2. Then it was time to watch more Rugby so we switched channels to see Australia play Uruaguy. At half time it was 31 to 3 in Australia's favour so we switched back to watch the MotoGP. Jorge Lorenzo led from the first corner and never looked in doubt of winning. Danny Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi fought it out for 2nd and 3rd and it REALLY was a fight. Marquez crashed out. We then switched back to watch the last 5 minutes of the Rugby. Australia won 65 to 3, the biggest score yet of the competition. The Wallabies are now at the top of Pool A - at least until their next game.

We now only have a week of our trip left so we will be heading back towards London - the long way round!