I'm really looking forward to this game. We will need to be on top form as The Raiders have had some good home results this year. I think we will have enough to do it as we are on a roll and should be able to bring home the points and set up a big game the week after. I'll go for Barrow 16v30 Fax. The Corner, shuddersfield. Beatnikz Spring Ale 3.6% Mmm!

Let's hope this isn't our banana skin fixture. They are tough to beat up there and from memory I think they drew with Toronto early on in the season, so no mugs.
Cut out the silly errors and keep our discipline and any team that scores 96 points in two games and has the second best defensive record in it's league should come through.
Fax by 12.

The Barrow/ Toronto report says Barrow only had 14 players. Anybody know why they were not able to take a full squad

Injuries +Visa issues a player came out of retirement & an amateur player from Barrow Island to make up the numbers

Pitch will be entirely different on Sunday to the gluepot it was against Toronto.

Other clubs have had issues too,must be a strict entry system there.

Another advantage to a Toronto. We want to play in the English league but when you come to play in Canada you won’t be able to play your best team because so so can only play in Britain and that doesn’t cover the Canadian visa. Do teams in the World CUp (football) all have to get special visas to play in the host country? I’m sure it’s all sorted out through their governing body. I wonder if the RFL considered this when alowing Toronto into the league system..... of course they didn’t.

Barrow had been sorting visas out since april so what happens with the middle 8s as teams cant plan far in advance toltal shambles to get them up

Here's a big issue.

Visa applications take up a lot of admin time which is already a scarce resource for part-time clubs.

If you think Canada's strict, wait until we get a team in the USA.

Said this before but the burden of development falls on the clubs least able to afford the burden. I'm happy for teams to come in from outlying and exotic countries but the price has to be right. We just have to pay to get the team to and from Ringway Airport if we go to Toulouse. To go to Toronto, we need a bus from Glasgow and we need to feed 25-30 people for five days. One trip to Toronto will probably represent 25% of our away travel costs for the season - which is NOT what they promised. Nor was there any mention of it when the RFL agreed our budget.

Looks like we dodged a bullet playing em in the smoke.

If by some chance we finish 2nd or 3rd in the League we will play them away

I’m sure if the Rhinos can’t take players due to visa issues we will hear all about it. Nobody gives one about the clubs in the Championship not being able to take a full squad over, apparently has happpened before, as well as having to to be able to get 5 days or so off work.

Get ‘em in SL and let’s see how Thursday night away games go down.

No problem Norman, they'll just switch said game to Aberdeen.

Academy Stadium, Etihad campus, capacity 7000. Perfect for the middle 8's

As it was when we had to traipse down to that field in London.

Will you lot stop being so negative and "anti-expansionist"? I think having these foreign clubs in the English league is a great idea, the more the better. I'd suggest clubs from Canada (Toronto), the US (Denver), Brazil (Rio), France (Catalans), Oz (Woolawong), South Africa (Cape Town), Russia (Moscow), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Berlin), Norway (Oslo), Iraq (Baghdad) and it'd be silly not having a rep from England so that has to be wonderful Wigan. Now that would create a great world feel to Super League, and if there are any visa problems they can all just play in London. Sorted.

Fuzzy Duck be careful ,people might think you are being sarcastic !

Hey, the fax in asia, I'm being deadly serious mate! Tokyo -v- Baghdad Grand Final in Dublin? Sweet!

Back to the Barrow match, the heat and dry grounds are widening the gap between the fitter top teams and the lower strugglers, so (dare I say it) a good time to play Barra. I also notice Maher and Green are left out of the Cas squad for their trip to Catalans so could be in our squad, especially with Jones and Davies having big stints in tonight's reserve match v Keighley.

Mahar back in squad,big poser is who gets the backline shirts this week.

Good luck Barrow-Cumbria doing it tough at moment..
The future Of Barrow Rugby League

Last Wednesday evening Barrow Raiders came within hours of going out of existence. Together with the other four remaining directors, too few much too few for the club to prosper, I faced the prospect of the club being no longer able to pay its players and staff caused by a huge black hole in our finances. It was only due to a fantastic eleventh hour offer by one of our directors that the club is still in existence to day and will hopefully finish the season which is ironically one of our best for some years.

A community icon in the Furness Peninsula was nearly committed to history and yet another part of our culture – what makes us who we are – would have been consigned to memory and eventually forgotten.

This was the third time in our recent history that the club has been close to closure. I want to help you understand the background and this bulletin is to explain the current position of the club and the recent history that has brought us to this point.

I was approached in May 2017 by senior figures within and associated with the club who raised serious concerns about the financial welfare of Barrow Rugby League. I was asked to return but I was reluctant as I felt I had given enough time to the club and need to devote more time to our business.

Throughout the following 4 months, I was regularly contacted and asked to return. Two new directors had joined the board,John Coward and Dave Robinson, and were confident the club had moved forward and asked again for me to be chairman.

In August, I agreed to come back to help sort the problems. Once back at the club it became immediately apparent that John and David had been misinformed regarding the financial state of Barrow R.L.

You will be amazed and horrified to know that the club had £7.50 in the bank with wages due and had two winding up orders from the Inland Rev & Customs. Stunningly, I received a phone call from the receivers who informed me that on 20th September they were changing the locks to Craven Park and to remove anything before that date. The club also had £50,000 of immediate unpaid bills. It took courage and determination.

My first task was to bring people to the board who could commit time and effort to stop the club folding: Keith Holt, Dawn Knowles and Sean Hunter stepped forward for which I thank them.

The club needed money quickly and before the end of the financial year on November 30th. Firstly, to start paying back the immediate debt and secondly to prevent a massive breach of the salary cap, that would have resulted in the club losing its promotion. However, this meant that money that should have been budgeted for 2018 had to be used for 2017.

In October we started to sign new players only to find out from the RFL that in May 2017 the club had been placed in special measures due to the concern over financial affairs within the club. This meant the club could not sign any players without initial consent from the R.F.L. Again,stunning information, not known to me but, again, we soldiered on.

These months were horrendous, but through extensive, time consuming efforts, we managed to get the special measures lifted but the RFL set the salary cap at a figure the club had to adhere to. Funds were limited and restricted even more so by the fact that 19 players had been given two year contracts with built in wage rises if the club gained promotion to the championship.

Despite this a squad of 30 players were assembled, the club through Mr Keith Holt’s brilliant efforts, has raised over £160,000 in sponsorship; three times more than in 2017 but has had to meet contract payments substantially higher than 2017 and pay off the large debt of 2017.

As everyone knows in recent weeks, the club has suffered horrendous injury crisis reducing the squad dramatically with last minute illnesses to two players and a work injury that left us with only 15 players for the Featherstone game with injuryand illnesses affecting 14 players. Gene Ormsby decided he no longer wanted to travel and has stopped attending training.

Under our brilliant coach and his assistant, despite these unpredicted set of circumstances, the performance of the team has been superb and above expectations with particularlystunning results against Leigh and Toronto at home. Everyone I have spoken to praises the attitude and determination of our gallant band of players: often against all the odds.

As a result, although the aim at the beginning of the year, was to avoid relegation we are now in a strong position and a stronger position than we expected.

Steve Neale has joined the board and is already making animpact, however, in recent weeks, John Coward has stepped down from the board but will continue to support and sponsorthe club. John has been a really dedicated director and is a great fan of the club.

The club obviously needs new directors that can commit time, carry out specific duties within the club, help instigate and follow through new income streams. The only way is up and we want to build a capacity so that our great club does not just survive on a day to day basis but is comfortable in this division and then who knows what we can aim for.

In May /June the club had a seven week period with only onehome game. Cash flow is our main short-term concern. Remember the club has raised a tremendous level of sponsorship this year but too much of this money has been used to pay of last years debts and meet contract payments that increased substantially in 2018.

If we can maintain our position in the league, we may be in a much stronger position financially at the end of the season.

However, to allow this to happen and ease the cash flow situation we need financial investment in Barrow Rugby League now! The club is part of our town’s heritage and if we lose it we will never get it back.

We need Barrovians living elsewhere (includinginternationally) and people across Furness and Millom to rally round and stand up for the rugby.

We accept communication has been limited and it is our intention to now hold a monthly meeting open to all supporters for updates to be given and open discussion to take place.

This year and in previous years, various directors have heavily funded the club but this can’t continue and we need the people of Barrow-in-Furness to help this wonderful club move forward. There is a great future but the firefighting has to stop.

With this in mind we will be opening a JustGiving page and start our campaign: Take One for the Team.

Simply, we are asking every supporter to bring one new person with them to every game. If 300 supporters brought one adult each, we would raise £4,500 extra at every home game. This is an easy way to make a massive difference;hopefully it is achievable for every supporter with a massive impact to the club.

As well as physical support it must be possible through the JustGiving page to create a virtual crowd who will, by donation boost our attendance revenue. Please get in touch with friends and family living outside the area and even the country to persuade them to contribute. Your club needs them.

Sometimes sports clubs are more important than the result of a game or a league position. They are about heritage, culture and the blood sweat and tears of a great community. Barrow Raiders is part of a special cultural heritage we need in our local community but also the ‘expat’ community living elsewhere in the country or overseas to get involved and show the spirit that make our club great!

To that said if you want to influence the future of the club and have the skills and time to be a director: step forward! Barrow Town Council if you want to support our heritage: step forward! With a great coach, dedicated players and superb volunteers we have the best of a great club. We can’t let the raiders die!

Looks like another club where decent people have not understood the financial dynamics of running a club and have had to be “saved” by other decent people.

Sadly so many clubs have been there and thank goodness there are people around still willing to help with time and cash.

Good luck Barrow, you many not have one anything at the top level for over 60 years, but clubs like this are vital for the future of rugby league.

Having said that I think we will win by twenty plus points.

I wish Barrow all the best for the future apart from the result on Sunday . To me their main home advantage is when the ground is like a bog not on firm ground. Heads on to our boys and no slip ups. Notice Jones had a good reserve game . Keep going lad and you will be a regular next year . IMO you are the one with the greatest potential that we have on our books it just sometimes takes RM a while for the penny to drop

I wish Barrow all the best for the future apart from the result on Sunday . To me their main home advantage is when the ground is like a bog not on firm ground. Heads on to our boys and no slip ups. Notice Jones had a good reserve game . Keep going lad and you will be a regular next year . IMO you are the one with the greatest potential that we have on our books it just sometimes takes RM a while for the penny to drop

Green is rumoured to have signed elsewhere for next season so is unlikely to feature for ourselves or Cas again this season unless they are desperate.

He has raw potential but still needs a lot of work and has a good number of players in front of him. If he sticks at it though and puts the time in he will do well for us.