Taken from letter in Keighley News this make a refreshing change and its great to see Gary continuing to engage with fans.

Cougar chairman praises fan

Thank you, Iain, for your letter in the Keighley News on 3rd May. It has highlighted a matter that myself, the club and some of the fans have been discussing for a few months now. To this end the club is holding a fans forum this evening (Thursday 10th June) at Cougar Park in the Hall of Fame bar from 7.30pm to ask our fans how they think we can increase crowd attendances. Not too long ago the Cougars were strongly supported and came close to achieving Super League status. My ambition is to go one step further this time. A key requirement to make this happen is to have good attendances at home games. This will provide funds to support Barry building the team so that they consistently perform to the desired standard in the Championship (i.e. appearing in Grand Finals) and so that the RFL are comfortable that our level of support warrants a place in Super League. The club is working very hard in the local community to increase knowledge of Rugby League and Keighley Cougars and the educating our young people about the advantages of leading healthy and safe lives. Our community division has accreditations that are not held anywhere else across Rugby League and we are pioneering some very exciting initiatives.

Barry is currently getting the team ready for our most important match of the season against Dewsbury this Sunday 13th June at 3pm at Cougar Park. Having beaten Dewsbury away earlier in the season by a 32 point margin we will go above them in the league if our winning margin is 30 points or more. We would then have Whitehaven in our sights and a realistic chance of staying in the Championship this season despite starting the season on minus 9 points. Overhauling the deficit is all down to the work Barry and the team have put in. There have been some superb and exciting displays. I urge all of you to get down to ground on Sunday to see what promises to be a fantastic match.

The following Sunday (20th June) we will be playing Widnes in our first cup Semi Final in over 5 years. This is yet another great achievment for Barry and the players. Widnes will be bringing a substantial number of supporters. Let’s ensure that the Widnes cheers don’t drown out the Cougar cheers. Let’s get down to the ground, show this team our support and help them into the Northern Rail Cup final.

To find out more about what Keighley Cougars can offer the whole family at affordable prices, come down tonight and come to the game on Sunday 13th June, kick off 3pm. Believe me, if you don’t come, you’ll be sorry you missed it!

Gary Fawcett
Chairman

Good man!

Although to be pedantic we only have to beat Dewsbury by 15 points to go above them. Our points difference is 29 points worse than theirs so add 15 to ours and take 15 off theirs you get 30 and we go above them

Don't pick on the Chairman for his maths. He has better maths than the last one.

[delHmmmmm...... Dewsbury on -158
Keighley on -187
the difference is 29, so really we have to win by 30 points....Hmmmm 32 is alot closer to the mark than 15[/del

Isn't it about points difference?

ie Points you score minus those scored against you

If we score 15 points more than Dewsbury our difference improves by 15 whilst theirs worsens by 15, net gain to us against them =30 ??

Or am I missing something

You're correct dreamer.

I think that Rugby Darren has failed to take in to account that as well as our points difference going up Dewsbury's would go down by the same amount.

So...... If we win by 15 points the difference would be affected as follows.

Dewsbury -158 - 15 = -173
Keighley -187 + 15 = -172

We would go above them by having a 1 point better points difference.

Hope this explains things