shaun mc

Exactly. If Wire get 250 season tickets for next season out of the 25k attending it will be a bonus for them. The sell out financially supports the game as a whole that does not have too many top level income streams. There were some good marketing initiatives this year such as the

At a guess the Sunday Times will have less than half a page. The Womens RU World Cup will dwarf it.

The most hypocritical comment ever posted on this board. This is my 34th (I think) final. I've never seen my team play in the final or a semi-final. Its the RL family's big day out in the big city. Its a pity you can't quite grasp that.

So the union version (roll the ball back without it touching the foot)is directly copied from Super League.....until the refs clamp down on it, that is.

Without any club bias here from the incidents that have been referred to the most : Ablett on Tomkins - 3 games not sufficient a tariiff of 4 to 6 is required. I can't see where a 3 game one is the max tariff allowed. If it was Championship club then I just couldn't see a player getting 3 games for the same. J Tomkins on Myler - at last 1 game and extra penalty in front of posts Morley on Harrison(was it?) - no charge, huge legal hit Loughlin on Robinson - the most borderline case. Can't agree between if it was an official warning or penalty or 10 mins sin bin or all 3 Carvell on Tomkins - no charge, was backing out, a word from the ref in passing

Is this the same Robinson that campaigned against the stadium in Workington?

Its not a million years ago that Maryport supported many more teams of both rugby codes than it does now. I started off at Maryport under 11's, then to football, then to Glasson Rangers, back to football, then to Netherhall RU starting off in the 4th team. Now a good proportion of the juniors are merged teams and Netherall can barely raise a first team without some forty-somethings playing. The playing numbers overall are well down, but yes there are still 3 clubs in Glasson, Maryport and Elbra

The thread should be "Bad times in West Cumbria at pro and amateur level'. Some amateur clubs aren't doing so well - Elbra failed to complete some games last year and narrowly avoided relegation. Its a very quick downward spiral for them - a top club until very recently

As a West Cumbrian living in the south of the county I wouldnt follow Barrow in SL avidly. Thats how it is. Its only 20 mins more for me to go to Wigan and I've been a few times but they both aren't my hometown area to be following home and away. People don't realise that it takes longer to get from West Cumbria to Barrow than it takes to get form Leeds ot Wigan for example. I feel the time has passed for a SL clubs a few years ago. The development area around Lilyhall has been built upon and the situation at both Town and Haven is on a downward slope. As Yanto says the kids who 4 -5 years ago may have considered Town or Haven are just totally by-passing them in favour of SL clubs. In addition the SL clubs have probably expanded their scouting network in the West Cumbria area. I know of families with 11 year old kids who are going down to Yorkshire clubs for training sessions on a regular basis. People look at the current attendances at Town and Haven and say look they can't support a SL team - they are now armchair fans or now go to SL games at Wigan for example. However a team was parachuted into north wales with zero fans and a few that watched on tv. I've nothing against Crusaders - but ideally I'd prefer a team in South Wales though. How much market research was done into the number of fans needed to support a SL club there? It was sh*t or bust and the RFL had to take a gamble. It largely seems to have worked. West Cumbria is so far advanced than Crusaders are. Allerdale/Copeland must have a greater population than the Wrexham area. It has some really good clubs developing youngsters. Yes it has it die hards who wouldn't go to the oppositions ground if they merged, but so do Saints and Wigan, (thats the parochial nature of the sport) but at Town and Haven they have a stronger voice. There are many ways to develop a SL side in West Cumbria but who will grasp that opportunity before it disappears completely.

Agree as well with Yanto. It seems to me that West Cumbria has been identified by the RFL as a prime area where future SL players are going to come from, but to do absolutely nothing to develop the area, or to look at it in depth at the area as an expansion of SL. After all, when Gateshead were in SL, their development area (or however it was called) was West Cumbria. Many Cumbrian kids compete with any region in the country - West Cumbria were the U-18 champs this season. However, the kids only gravitate to SL clubs not Championship as they can't see any future. I went to a Wigan game last season (see the pattern) and bumped into an ex work colleague with 30-odd under 11's or 12's in tow. I bet a lot of those kids have never been any where near Derwent park or The Rec.

The American chairman was on the radio tonight - Haven will not be going into admin. They are just balancing their income and expenditure. Crowds have plummeted this season in response to poor results. West Cumbria is now just a talent pool for the SL clubs, ther's no interest in playing for Town or Haven. Loads of young players regularly go for trials at various clubs as well as others being part of academies. However, in time that talent pool will decrease and then that talent pool will be lost. The proposed Cumbria v England game for Garry Purdham will be the last rep game for a long time in W Cumbria if things continue.

Not too long ago (I have the stats somewhere) the top division had 65-70% of the total attendances. Now those top division/SL clubs have more than 80%, possibly as high as 85% So now we have - the SL clubs have virtually all the speccies, Tv receipts and access to the best juniors across the Uk. The Championship clubs used to get bonuses from a transfer deal now and then and big crowds in the hope of causing an upset in the challenge cup. Now that there are no transfer fees and CC crowds are falling, then the cash is drying up. If we don't watch it, there will be a super league and the next level will be a glorified version of the division Bramley play in instead of clubs putting pressure on the SL clubs.

Minus 14 here already at 9pm.

A good 6 inches here south of Kendal. Manchester airport temporarily closed to clear runways as well. We are flying from there early Tuesday am for some winter sun. Hope theres a lot of snow clearance going on.