The Batley Bulldogs are an English professional rugby league club in Batley, West Yorkshire, who play in the Championship. Batley were one of the original twenty-two rugby football clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, they have won three Challenge Cups. Batley Cricket Club decided to have a rugby football side merge with them at their ground under the name Batley Cricket Athletic and Football Club; the two local rugby teams, Batley Mountaineers and Batley Athletic, played a challenge match at the cricket club's Mount Pleasant home on 23 October 1880 to determine, the town's premier rugby side and worthy of the cricket club. Both sides claimed victory but the cricket club chose Batley Athletic to join them; the new club's first game was at home against Bradford Zingari which they won by 2 goals, 3 touchdowns, 2 dead balls and one touch goal to nil. Jacob Parker scored the first touchdown; the first season finished with Batley having drawn 5 out of 26 matches played. They won the Yorkshire Challenge Cup in 1884 – 5 season beating Heckmondwike, Halifax and Bradford before beating Manningham 8 minor points to 2 in the final held at Cardigan Fields in Leeds.

Batley were one of the original twenty-two clubs that met at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895 and formed the Northern Rugby Football Union. Batley’s first match under the new union was on 7 September 1895 against Hull F. C. at Mount Pleasant with Batley winning 7 – 3. Sixth in the Yorkshire Senior Competition of 1896/97, they battled their way to third spot come the end of the next season. Where knock-out competitions was concerned, they were peerless. In 1897, the'Gallant Youths' became the first winners of the Challenge Cup beating St. Helens 10-3, in front of a crowd of 13,492 at Headingley. Batley retained the trophy by beating Bradford Northern on the corresponding weekend the following year at Headingley in front of 27,941 spectators, a record gate for a rugby match; the club were Yorkshire League winners in 1898/99 and in 1900/01 won the Challenge Cup for the third and last time to date. Wharton'Wattie' Davies set club records for most appearance and points between 1896-1912.

Batley's next cup triumph came on 23 November 1912 when Hull were defeated 17–3 at Headingley in Batley’s one and only Yorkshire County Cup win. Became a Limited Company Batley Cricket Athletic and Football Club Ltd in 1922 The'Gallant Youths' reached the semi-final of the Yorkshire Cup and led the league in November 1923. Batley were crowned champions on Saturday 3 May 1924, lifting the Rugby League Championship Trophy for the only time in the club’s history, after defeating Wigan 13–7 in the final; the club were Yorkshire League winners that season. The record attendance was set at 23,989 for the visit of Leeds for a third round Challenge Cup match on 14 March 1925. 1952 saw a Yorkshire Cup final appearance against Huddersfield on 15 November.'Fartown' running out 18–8 winners. The club's name was changed from Batley Cricket, Athletic & Football Club Ltd to its present official name of Batley Football Club Ltd in 1979; the club celebrated its centenary in 1981 with a win over Fulham. In the 1960s the league was restructured into two divisions for two seasons before the single-division format was ditched in 1973.

Batley are one of only a few teams never to make it into the top flight, although they came close in 1993/94. The last match of the season against Doncaster came down to being a play-off for a spot in the first division, but Batley lost 10-5 in front of a capacity crowd of 4,500 at Mount Pleasant, the chance was lost; the local council suggested that Dewsbury and Batley ground share at Crown Flatt after refusing a grant towards safety repairs to Mount Pleasant in February 1987. Batley looked set to join the elite in 1995 when they held off Huddersfield to finish in second place, just two points behind champions Keighley; the club succeeded in winning the Second Division Championship in the 1994–95 season. However, when the Super League was created for the following year, Batley along with Keighley were excluded; the club estimated that the decision cost them around £500,000. Batley added'Bulldogs' to their name for the 1996 season; the newly named Batley Bulldogs finished 1996 at the foot of Division One.

Batley won the Trans-Pennine Trophy in 1998 beating Oldham in the final held at Mount Pleasant. Batley were promoted from the Second Division that same season. In 2003, Barry Eaton broke; the club underwent a major shake up in the coaching staff with the resignation of head coach David Ward due to pressure from some supporters in the form of derisory comments in the local press. The new coaching first team set up involved Gary Thornton as Head Coach, assistant Paul Harrison. After a tough season in 2005 Batley were into National League One relegation play-offs, facing bitter rivals and neighbours Dewsbury. Victory in the final saw Batley stay up against well funded sides with Super League ambitions. 2006 saw Batley start the campaign with little promise after a series of dismal performances in the Northern Rail Cup and the early rounds of National League One. However, coach Gary Thornton turned the side round and Batley made their way into the end of season play-offs. Jay Duffy's late drop goal sealed a 23-22 victory at Leigh to end the Lancastrians' own hopes of promotion and earn Thornton the honour of National League coach of the year.

Batley failed to replicate this success in the next round, crashing to a

The White Heather Club was a BBC TV Scottish variety show that ran on and off from 7 May 1958 to 1968. It was an early evening BBC television programme, it started at 6.20, Jimmy Shand composed a melody "The Six Twenty Twostep" as the theme tune. This was followed by Andy Stewart singing "Come in, come in, it's nice to see you...." The show always ended with Andy Stewart and the cast singing, "Haste ye Back": Robert Wilson, who in 1957 had been leading The White Heather Group, was an early presenter of the Club and recorded with them. The show was so successful that in the early 1960s there was a company touring Scottish theatres, containing many of the performers; the show was broadcast from Glasgow, at that time the only large TV studio in Scotland, produced by Iain MacFadyen, who went on to become the Head of Light Entertainment for BBC Scotland. During the same period a New Year's Eve television programme called The White Heather Club, was used to herald in the Hogmanay celebrations; the show contained many of the same performers plus special guests such as Jimmy Logan and Stanley Baxter in comedy sketches.

From 1957 to 1963 there was another programme, along similar lines. The performers were Jimmy Shand and his band, Ian Powrie and his band, Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor, Scottish country dancers: Dixie Ingram and the Dixie Ingram Dancers, the stars of the show: Heather Hall, Heather Wright, Heather Roberts, Heather Hobbs, known affectionately as "Hobbit"; the Corries, who performed on location rather than in the studio, were staples of the show and they were joined by singers Moira Anderson, Jimmy Urquhart and Kenneth McKellar. Andy Stewart was the master of ceremonies, he sang songs and told jokes. All the male dancers, Andy Stewart, wore kilts, the women dancers wore long white dresses with tartan sashes. However, in the first show Stewart wore trousers and in the second he rented a kilt before having them tailored. In 1965, Fontana Records issued an album called The White Heather Club, featuring McGregor; the duo issued dozens of folk albums, had a hit single "Football Crazy" during the period that show was broadcast.

Andy Stewart had several hit singles, The Corries albums continue to sell well today. The Penguin TV companion in 2006 voted The White Heather Club one of the 20 worst TV shows ever. Jeremy Paxman, who gave the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the 2007 Edinburgh International Television Festival cited The White Heather Club as evidence that there was no "Golden Age" of British television. Although popular in its day, in some respects competently made, it put forward a tartanised view of Scotland, becoming dated by the late 1960s; the White Heather Club

Mechanical Poet was a Russian metal band formed in Moscow in 2002. The band released concept albums in post-prog and symphonic progressive metal genres with orchestral arrangements and heavy use of keyboards, its music is influenced by film score composers like Danny Elfman, its lyrics are based on fantasy and science fiction stories. The band split in 2009, its members since released a number of side projects. Mechanical Poet was founded in 2002 as a studio project by ex-members of Russian avantgarde act Glazemaker Lex Plotnikoff and Tom Tokmakoff. For a few years the band known as Glazemaker was working on creating a "sound" of their own, till they evolved a sound, a mixture between melodic metal with progressive metal riffs and symphonic orchestrations using electronic instruments. In 2003 Sebastian Trifonoff was soon replaced by Epidemia frontman Max Samosvat. With the new singer the band released Handmade Essence. After the EP the band received several offers from various music companies, signed a record deal with Italian label Aural Music In 2004 the debut album Woodland Prattlers, was released.

Though the album had sold well, the union of Plotnikoff and Samosvat split in 2005 due to artistic disagreements. In 2006 the Mechanical Poet returned with a new line-up: singer Jerry Lenin, guitar player Lex Plotnikoff, drummer Vladimir Ermakoff and bass player Serge Khlebnikoff. In this line-up the band made their first live show and released their third album Creepy Tales For Freaky Children; the album had simpler arrangements with a more post-prog sound, something, not accepted well by many metal fans of the band. The album was acclaimed by punk and alternative rock audience; the album had bonus tracks in Russian, the first time the band had Russian songs. After the release of the album, Serge Khlebnikoff left Mechanical Poet. In 2007 the band released another concept album, Who Did It To Michelle Waters? A double album telling a story about a suicide of a girl and the circumstances that led her to that; the double album consisted of two parts, Music From And Inspired By The Original Sad Story and Original Score.

The bass session player on the album was Daniel Zakharenkoff. The 2008 saw band with new vocalist, Vladimir Nasonoff, a new concept album Eidoline: the Arrakeen Code, based on Frank Herbert's Dune series; the album was well received by Russian media: Mir Fantastiki magazine rated it 9 out of 10 and named it the best sci-fi/fantasy concept album of 2008. On June 7, 2009 Mechanical Poet played their last show featuring ex-singers Max Samosvat and Jerry Lenin and announced they were going on indefinite hiatus. Since several side projects from the band's members appeared, including Luna Damien' by Plotnikoff and Lenin, Sunburst by Samosvat and Nasonoff, Last Fighter and Mistland Prattlers by Plotnikoff. On March 1, 2017 PLotnikoff announced in the official VK community that Mechanical Poet is recording a new album called The Midnight Carol That an Imp Has Sought; the release, was delayed indefinitely due to Plotnikoff's health problems. Lex Plotnikoff – guitars, vocals Vladimir Nasonoff – vocals Vladimir Ermakoff – drums Max Samosvat – vocals Tom Tokmakoff – drums Serge Khlebnikoff – bass Sebastian Trifonoff - original singer who left the band before its first album release Ivan Izotov – recorded bass for "Creepy Tales For Freaky Children" Nik Simonoff – played bass in the period from December 2007 to February 2008 Alexander Shvetz – played bass in the period from February 2008 to April 2008 Alexander Tavrizian - live keyboards Danila Zakharenkov - live bass Jerry Lenin - vocals Kirill Kachanov - drums Anastasia Petrenko - vocals Innar Hanum - vocals Veronika Barbutskaya - vocals Isadora Cortina - vocals 2003 - Handmade Essence 2004 - Woodland Prattlers 2007 - Creepy Tales For Freaky Children 2007 - Who Did It To Michelle Waters?

2008 - Eidoline: The Arrakeen Code 2008 - Ghouls TBD - The Midnight Carol That an Imp Has Sought 2010 - Hattifatteners - Stories from the Clay Shore 2011 - Luna Damien - Muddlewood 2015 - Mistland Prattlers - Music of Mistland and the Ocean of Sunset 2017 - Last Fighter - Neon Children Official site About the band in Encyclopaedia Metallum About the band in Prog Archives About the band at Metal Library