Exactly my point Homer. I love the Stoop as a stadium. Best Ive been to, and I loathe the idea of moving. But... if the Union club are now charging so much rent that it is impacting on our ability to recruit players of the calibre we need to compete in SL this will drive the fans away and I doubt DH will be able to keep us going. Are we really going to find some rich benefactor to take us over and subsidise us after all this time of searching? Its not like we are a Northern club where a succesfull business man helps the local club in his community who he has supported all his life.

So are we witnessing the slow death of top flight rugby league in the capital? Is the rent too high for us to pay? Or at least too high for us to be able to add to our squad? Are we having to leave our quota spots open in order to pay our landlords (can't still call them partners now surely). Whilst I hate us being Harlequins the Stoop is a cracking ground and unless we had the means to set up independently I don't know what we can do other than stay put. I can't see us getting a better deal with a lower division football club ( with all that goes with that sort of ground share arrangement, on the road games etc) unless a local authority has a venue left over from 2012 that they would have us take over rather than leave it as a white elephant. Unless we can get one of the number of Russian businessmen living in London interested in RL I don't see us doing anything else other than stumbling on until the plug is eventually pulled on us.

I'm not sure about the plug being pulled - I have the impression from Richard Lewis that the community work of Quins is highly regarded, and they know that the anti league journalists would have a field day if anything were to happen to us.

We need another Ian lenagan. He came out of the blue following an introduction from Stevo, and it isn't that hard a sell to a company who wishes to support communities to get involved. But as I've said before, why the RFL don't encourage Gillette, Engage, Guinness or other successful partnerships to get involved I fail to understand.

Undoutably.

We've struggled to recruit quality since he left and many of the good players left in McDermott's squad were brought in when Rea was still at the club and had an active say in recruitment: Randall, Melling, Orr, Temata, Purdham etc.

I think I'm right in describing Chris Melling is the sole Lancastrian in the team. To me that says it all about the scope of recruitment.

I'm sure the community work is highly regarded and rightl so, but low crowd numbers and performances(!) on the pitch don't help our cause. Personally I think we need more of Simon Moran rather than an Ian Lenagan (ie someone who'll be around for the long term) - but definitely not another Richard Branson!

Nice work by Quins RU if that's the case.

speaking of BLIND SPECULATION...has anyone received any answers to the forum questions that we were asked to email in after the recent cancellation (note, not postponement) of the January Fans Forum?

I haven't and seriously do not expect any. Sad but true.

Yep...smacks of a big step backwards after the progress made last year in being more open with the fans. The Club need to strike a balance between attracting new fans and keeping the (sometimes myopic ) ones they have. If a couple of "hard" questions are too much for them to handle then god help us. Still, Mac would still say we will win the comp and the "management" will blame Ian Lenegan for everything else........even though he continues to throw cash at us until the RFL told him to stop.