REVIEW: Gillette Rugby League Yearbook 2010-2011, by Tim Butcher and Daniel Spencer

The Gillette Rugby League Yearbook is now firmly established as a must-have annual purchase for rugby league’s most committed fans.

And when you see the dedication, hard work and attention to detail that goes into producing each season’s effort, it’s easy to understand why.

Rugby league experienced some exhilarating highs and gut-wrenching lows during 2010 – all are captured and recorded in this comprehensive review of the season.

Tim Butcher looks back on 2010 month by month, starting at the turn of the year with Steve Prescott’s MBE, Jamie Peacock’s call for Super League to be reduced to 10 clubs and Brian Noble’s desperate scrabble to assemble a Crusaders squad in just six weeks.

By the time the season ended, New Zealand had won the Four Nations in the most dramatic fashion, Wigan were back at the top of the English game, Warrington had held onto the Challenge Cup and Halifax had triumphed in a remarkable Championship Grand Final.

It’s all recorded in painstaking detail – and illustrated with more than 200 photographs – over the course of 319 packed pages that are sure to bring back memories for rugby league supporters across the country.

There’s also an in-depth look at the international scene, the NRL season and the Co-operative Championships, with more stats than you can shake a stick at finishing it all off.

Fancy knowing who made the most tackle busts for Bradford? Or the most offloads for Warrington?

Oh, and who was that Kiwi bloke who made one appearance for Leeds back in 1996, bust his shoulder and was never seen again?

The answers are all in here. But more importantly, so are a year’s worth of memories.

Here’s to 2011.

The ‘Gillette Rugby League Yearbook 2010-2011‘, by Tim Butcher and Daniel Spencer, is out now. ISBN 978-1901347227, published by League Publications Ltd. It is available to buy here.