This is the clearest as it has Saint, Wigan, Wire and Widnes all within their respective counties, Laughing Gravy, you need to move with the times and stop holding on to the past.

Lancashire County Cricket club should think about changing their name back to what it first was Manchester Cricket Club.

:1zst4cch

=#BF00BF:1zst4cchIt could do that, yes, but unless someone can provide reasons why it would be any better received than previous, similar efforts it seems to hold no greater attractions than, say, the Exiles games.:1zst4cch


Other measures are needed to increase profile and reach in other areas. My basic plan would be:
- Reduce SL to 10 clubs. (Takes 6 games off the season. 4 regular season & 2 after the split)
- introduce a 2nd cup competition early in the season. (Max 4 games for SL clubs)

=#BF00BF:1zst4cchNot for me, though others might feel differently. I reckon a new cup comp would be poorly attended and the temptation to revert back to a 27-game league season with each of the 10 clubs playing each other 3 instead of 2 times would be too great. Either way, a 10 club league comp would seem very stale to me.:1zst4cch

- introduce a 3 game Roses comp run alongside the regular season. All qualifying players to be made available for selection. If they're not then clubs to be sanctioned and players to be made unavailable for international selection.

=#BF00BF:1zst4cchSee above. I'm not averse to the principle of a 3 game series - I'm in favour - just not a roses one.:1zst4cch

- take £3.6m a year from the TV money to be invested in the game. £1.8m to be targeted investment in one or 2 areas (my preference being Newcastle and/or Manchester) to both help Salford/Newcastle grow and to grow the game at grassroots level in these areas. The other £1.8m to go toward grassroots growth in other areas.
- A regular mid-season international series established involving England, Wales and France.

=#BF00BF:1zst4cchBoth get my vote although I haven't the faintest whether £1.8m is an appropriate sum. But Newcastle and Manchester, definitely.

I am from Manchester proper, not a born & bred RL Fan but have been for 34 years now, I would still care about Lancs v Yorks, more so than I would a 3rd Wigan v Saints, Widnes v Wire - Magic Weekend game.

Drop 2 uncompetitive SL Clubs reducing SL to 10 teams, *there's your mid season break*
Championship stays at 12 with 2 uncompetitive Clubs relegated to League 1
League 1 goes from 15 to 12 Clubs with a new League 2 introduced, 3 uncompetitive teams relegated.

Introduce 1 up 1 down straight P&R *creates excitement & [icould[/i bring back fans to the terraces*. Get rid of or reduce the 8's (all of them), why should a team that finishes 8th in SL be crowned Champions ? Ludicrous!!!
Reduce it to Top 4
Have 2nd bottom SL & 2nd Top Championship play off for promotion/relegation.
This reduction in end of season 'Novelty Fixtures' creates yet more room for Internationals/Roses etc games within the regular season.

Above all, market the CARP out of it & create a buzz.

Unfortunately the success of such a venture would require leaders with a backbone & not the half A$$€D
bunch of invertebrates we have currently presiding over RL.

Re Clearwing -
I understand what you mean, I was previously against reducing the comp down to 10, like you I thought it would get stale. I probably still think it would. I think the benefits of it (larger squads for the 10 clubs, more tv money for each club, higher intensity/quality games) might be starting to outweigh the negatives. Though that's partly why I suggested a 2nd cup comp to liven the season up a bit.

Quote ="JonB95"Indeed.. when was the last time you heard fans of Saints/Wigan/Wire et al chanting Lancashire? In fact, even the good people of Yorkshire couldn't get up for it before it was scrapped - see the paltry attendances for yourself here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_Lea ... _the_Roses Here's a wacky idea, how about we improve our international team (England) by playing a full international mid season with another international team (France) and stop trying to revive dead and buried fixtures from the bygone past.'" looking at all the attendances from 1895 onwards it is pretty clear to see that nobody gives a damn about this series. pointless exercise bringing it back.

Quote ="JonB95"Indeed.. when was the last time you heard fans of Saints/Wigan/Wire et al chanting Lancashire? In fact, even the good people of Yorkshire couldn't get up for it before it was scrapped - see the paltry attendances for yourself here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_Lea ... _the_Roses Here's a wacky idea, how about we improve our international team (England) by playing a full international mid season with another international team (France) and stop trying to revive dead and buried fixtures from the bygone past.'" looking at all the attendances from 1895 onwards it is pretty clear to see that nobody gives a damn about this series. pointless exercise bringing it back.

yeah, but we will still get a thread on it here at least once a year though

Lancs v Yorks discussions are one of a few reasons our sport won't grow, too many parochial ideas, not enough national focus.

Even the rfl daring to putting a game in Liverpool and people lost their s**t; and we actually have a team from Merseyside too ffs.

It's not just the rfl that hold us back, it's the dinosaur fans with chips on their shoulders, it's going to take at least one more generation to get rid of them too.

Don't even get me started on BARLA.
Wannabe CEO types who think they are running a club like a billion dollar industry.
Thinking they are important and matter, they are usually just fat loud mouths with too much time on their hands (like amateur versions of Leigh).
Hold the game back something chronic.

Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester. They are not bloody real places it was Lancashire for a 1000 years have some sense of history and pride

If you wanna be more specific, Lancashire as an established county was that formed until the late 12th century. It was part of the kingdom of Northumbria starting in the 8th century which also incorporated the entirety of Yorkshire and small parts of Cumbria. A little while after that (cant recall exact time (little while since I did my studies)) barrow was also part of Lancashire. Approximately 1000 years ago, Lancashire was ceded to the newly formed kingdom of England.

So point is, if we go just a little earlier than 1000 years, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Northumberland were the same place and so were parts of Cumbria which means that we couldn't have a series cos we would only have one team, anyway this isn't a history lesson hahaha

Pretty much spot on yorksguy, (sorry Yed I'm and always will be from Warrington Lancashire), but what is this Cumbria that you speak of?

As far as the RL War of the Roses is concerned I'm saddened, ("sorrowful" not the poster) but I don't think that there's an appetite for it and certainly not a three game series. Maybe a one off game for international selection as the other code's Probables v Possibles?

The county of Cheshire, which has always included at least part of Warrington, may well be 145 years older than Yorkshire, and 262 years older than Lancashire, yet it isn't a 'real place'!

That's all ok but, which side did they take in the War of the Roses, I cant think that they would have sided with Yorkshire.
I think we scrap the idea and have Yorkshire vs The Rest of the World, much simpler that way and we can still have chants of "Yorkshire, Yorkshire" from one end of the ground.
This will keep everyone happy

Apart from the fact that the original Wars had little to do with Yorkshire V Lancashire, can someone explain why we need this competition?

What would it do to develop (say) Coventry or a team from the south-west? Do you not think it would appear on some digital channel as a version of soap-box derby?

We cannot grow until we appeal to the south-east where the power, money and bulk of the population are. As London is now very ethnically mixed, instead of reinventing something that worked in the middle of the last century, we try to reach out to those ethnic groups.

Why can't we do both? There's still plenty of people in Yorkshire and Lancashire who are virtually unaware of RL.

We just don't call it Lancashire v Yorkshire anymore, and give it a much broader name such as Wests v Easts. Could be an all day event involving amateur, u/19's and Superleague/Championship teams.

West's..........(North West, West, South West} East's...........(North East, East, South East}

How about Yorkshire Vs The Rest of SL

Do you mean Bottom of Superleague v Top of Superleague (On Current form)

I'm all for having a think outside the box but using West as an example, how do you pick a team and appeal to the supporters of none SL teams, your Barrow's, Whitehaven's and Workington's not to mention the likes of Gloucester, Coventry and the Welsh?

Even if you limit representatives from each team so that everyone gets a go it will still be difficult as I think as there's no connectivity and the numbers of supporters you potentially lose from the big SL teams won't be made up by the 'expansion' teams

If that's the way it works out then yes. As people have said, Yorkshire folk seem proud to be from Yorkshire so you'd probably get the support there. We need to stick with it like we have the Magic Weekend to let it bed in.

You could make the basis of a Yorkshire team good enough to beat all-comers from the top Lanc teams;
Clark
Westwood
Westerman
Atkins
Bateman
McIlorum
Walmsley
Turner

Not for me:
- The crowds were poor before, can't see why that would change
- The top players will be miraculously 'injured' or booked in for ops on that week as they were on the last Exiles game before that was quietly dropped
- NRL clubs won't release their players, so the quality wouldn't be great.
- Fans in Lancashire and Yorkshire have top level rugby on their doorstep as it is. we're not appealing to anyone SL isn't already targeted at. The games could be taken on the road but then you exasperate the crowd issue.

IMO an England mid-season tour to play Samoa, Fiji, Tonga etc has more merit in that at least it will be a competitive games for the England side against guys they don't otherwise regularly come up against. Potentially more of a change of the NRL releasing their guys too given that it's not as far away.

The die hards would love it, it may seem popular on here but it's a complete dead rubber, pointless, does sod all for expansion, reinforces stereotypes and will have union laughing in the halls of Twickenham as we dig our heels into the north, build our walls across Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire keeping out union while they set sail and conquer the rest of the world.

This idea should have been cemented in at least 50 years ago, it might be an actual event now, with other counties ready to join in.
Now though it's outdated and only really supported by the most insular counties in England...the Yorkshire combinations.

We need to expand in Yorkshire & Lancashire too. A similar number of people watched Leicester Tigers last 2 home games as watched a pro RL game this week. And every single one of those RL games, except the game in Toulouse, was played in Yorkshire or Lancashire.

We have to expand the sport beyond Yorks & Lancs of course, but that is a long term effort starting at the grassroots. 2/3rds of clubs are in Yorkshire & Lancashire and it's hardly like we're racking up big crowds anywhere. So we have to get more people who live near our clubs to turn up to games and be involved in RL. That's easier to do in the short term and can be done ALONGSIDE expanding the sport geographically.

Cheshire is very real and is older than Lancashire and on your logic shall we go back to Northumbria or Deira or Rheged and Elmet or Brigantia for the whole of the North then? How about calling it Hen Ogledd like in old Welsh tales of "The Old North"? Before the words Lancashire and Yorkshire even existed there were long standing names for the areas of this island where Lancashire and Yorkshire became made up places. But time moves on. You shouldn't stay stuck in the past, it's a backwards way to live. Counties are almost relics to me anyway. They mean absolutely nothing to me. Or to anyone I know other than people from Yorkshire and Cornwall. I've never met anyone else who gives a rats about their county. They're just administrative areas for councils and Police forces. I'm a Mancunian and, to me, people from Lancashire have stupid Gorby accents and sound like farmers or like they've got two marbles in their mouths when they speak.