Don't miss the NEC Big Game this Sunday

Back in the days before players shared their man of the match winnings with their cheeky team-mates at kick-on drinks after a win, the best player of the afternoon scored for themselves this beautiful thing. 

It was the NEC Big Game Ball Trophy. Now, we're not sure if they quickly dipped one of the match balls in gold straight after the siren and by the time Graeme Hughes had wondered over to you for a post-game chat to present the game ball to you it was ready to go ... 

Maybe they pre-made a bunch of trophies and just handed them out as the season wore on ... or maybe they just used the same one each week as a TV prop ... 

As advertised in Big League magazine in the mid-80s. 


Or what viewers at home saw of it ... from memory it was an hour-long highlights package which aired two hours after the game had been played. 


Your author remembers some dag calculating, including ads, that we only got to see 43 minutes of actual game time. 

People weren't happy about it back then and they still aren't now. Some sad folks are still even writing online articles about it ...


But anyway, we're here to celebrate what was one of rugby league's greatest triumphs - the NEC Big Game. It later became the State Bank Big Game and to be honest, it was just as awesome. 


With "fabulous prizes to be won" it was always a sure winner. 

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