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

It 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.


Other measures are needed to increase profile and reach in other areas. My basic plan would be

- 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.

See above. I'm not averse to the principle of a 3 game series - I'm in favour - just not a roses one.

- 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.

Both get my vote although I haven't the faintest whether £1.8m is an appropriate sum. But Newcastle and Manchester, definitely.

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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.

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

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}