John Payne

Finished reading: The Martian by Andy Weir 📚

Finished reading: No Better Time by Molly Knight Raskin 📚 I was given this book when it first came out.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month and despite being late, I’ve joined with Relay to raise money for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Finished reading: Artemis: A Novel by Andy Weir 📚

Playing around with a connector for crosspoint-reader-sync and micro.blog bookshelves.

Finished reading: Rise of the Empire : Star Wars : Featuring the Novels Star Wars : Tarkin, Star Wars by John Jackson Miller, James Luceno 📚 I paid no attention to the fact that this book is in fact 2 novels and 3 short stories.

Fun fact - the Old Mate has changed hands in the championship final only three times final: 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The Old Mate makes it to the playoffs once again.

The Old Mate remains with Chicago who seem to be getting very comfortable with it.

Watching the Free Jacks from Foxboro MA!

Can you beat this open and honest discussion about some key MLR topics including RRS and state of the business?

Old Mate remains with Chicago, and now travels with them to California, hoping to tie up their longest previous reign of 5 defenses (2025 week 3->week 9).

The Old Mate stays with Chicago.

Less than 36 hours to get your picks in: rangerpicks.rugby/week6

Old Mate stays with Chicago.

Left family vacation early, drove 280 miles, 5 hours and 5 states to get to the @nefreejacks match!

Old Mate will now travel to Seattle with Chicago.

Ranger Picks Calendars are updated after Chicago Hounds announced some schedule changes for the upcoming Sunday Night Rugby.

The Old Mate stays with Chicago.

🔥 OLD MATE CHAOS REPORT 🔥 How wild has the Major League Rugby Old Mate Challenge Cup really been?

The Old Mate travels to Nashville this weekend!

Not without some hiccups but Sunday Night Rugby on ESPN was awesome.

And the Hounds take the Old Mate from California Legion on Legion’s first ever defense.

Just a quick refresher on the Supporters Challenge Cup (Old Mate) - the cup has to be WON to be claimed.

This post has a limited audience.

You can now trace the MLR Supporters Challenge Cup history directly on the MLR website!

Chicago Hounds have only won The Old Mate once when they took it from New England Free Jacks in week 3 of the 2025 season after 5 failed challenges across 2023 and 2024.

The Old Mate is a hot potato. 36% of holders lose it immediately, and most teams don’t survive more than a couple of defenses.

Congrats to Legion for winning the Old Mate from the Free Jacks.