Hello All.

I would like to say that this statement is incorrect. Firstly there is more than one junior team in the town. Keighley Albion have an extremly strong junior section with one team having over 21 players. We as a club are looking to support all junior and amatuer rugby including West Craven Warriors who continuing to develop strongly in the barnoldswick area.
We have offered support to develop an under 8s and 9s with the cougar cubs on a number of occasions and have also had RFL support through the service to drive this.
In regards to the under 18s we are allowing them to play at the ground as our 1st and reserve team are training at utley. Also the 18s are training at Marley with our under 18s scholarship side coached by Chris Baines.
Last year the club gave free entry to all junior players across keighley and district. This including 1 free coach at every age group, to try encourage them to bring the whole team down. However this had a very poor take up.
We have changed things this year. If junior players want to come for free with there coaches they can, however, they must ring myself at the club to secure there free entry before thursday.(coaches must bring a minimum of 3 players to secure free entry for themselves).
On top of this we are inviting down individual age groups to be our guest at a home game. Teams so far have been Cougar cubs under 15s and Keighley Albion under 14s. The Albion side had 20 young players learning about health and diet
and also preparation for a game (this includes a trip into the changing rooms while the players are in there before the game) The head coach himself also meets the young players and gives them an insite into a match day. This will continue to happen all season and we have invited a differant team to each game.
The rugby union ground this sunday held a tournament with over 500 kids. However this tournament only included 8's, 9's , 10's and 11's from Keighley. This Tournament was organised by Russell Gibson from keighley Rugby union and including teams from huddersfield. It is down to each individual junior club to organise there own tournaments. We will help out where possible
The Community Foundation alongside Keighley rugby union organised a cross code game. This had 250 young people playing rugby. These were all from keighley and district which proves rugby of both codes can co exsist and also be strong.
If any one would like anymore information then please ring me and we can talk over any ideas you have.

Dean Muir
Community Cougars Foundation Manager
01535 606044 ext 202

Excellent post with lots of information and content,thanks Dean.

Keighley Cougar Prowlers Girls rugby league team have held tournaments at South Craven School for the last two seasons. This has enabled the girls to have teams from as far away as Hull to come and play. All age groups catered for from Under 12's, under 14's and Under 16's. These have been a great event and all clubs who came have said what a great venue. This has been done with the help of Dean and Tom. The reason for not having it at cougar park is because they are limited to only one pitch, but venues are out there if you look around.

Dean,

Please elaborate, which part of Mr Hicks statement is incorrect?

Hi BOB,

The piece that was incorrect was in regard to the club not wanting the Cubs 18s to play at cougar park. We wanted to put in place a deal to suit all. Which has happened. We did want them to play here and they are doing so.
Hopefully that clears up any confusion.

"When Cougarmania was at its hieght there was age groups ranging from U8s right the way through"
There are age goups playing all the way through however not based at one club. As stated above it is split between albion and cubs. However I agree in a perfect world we would have 2 full clubs with all age groups.

Yours in Sport

Dean

Thanks Dean,

To avoid any further confusion the current state of the Under 18s is as follows.

At a meeting with Graham Kemp and Jason Demetriou the Cubs were informed of two issues.

The first being that Jason was concerned with the state of the pitch at Cougar Park and that he wanted as few games as possible played there to allow the first team an adequate surface to play expansive rugby. Ideally he would have liked the Cubs to have played elsewhere but a compromise was suggested when the Cubs agreed to allow Cougars to train on their pitch at Utley therefore relieving wear and tear on their own pitch and that the Cubs would not play every home game at Cougar Park. It was agreed that we would aim to play at least 50% of them there.

This then lead onto the second issue. Graham stated that each home game costs the Cougars money to stage and that he wasn't prepared to finance any loss making arrangements. He was adamant that he would not open Cougar Park just to stage a Cubs game. To this end we are trying to re-arrange home fixtures to coincide with Cougars home fixtures and to play "curtain closers". I.e. the opposite of curtain raisers. These games would be played after the Cougars games allowing for a more economical use of facilities and a better experience for the players and spectators. These negotiations are ongoing.

As I write, with the National Youth League season starting on Sunday, there has not yet been any Under 18s fixture confirmed for Cougar Park, though we are confident that there soon will be. Your assertion that a deal has already been agreed is news to me[size (actually it's not true)[/size.

As for your other comment, I cannot speak on any authority regarding Keighley Albion but as far as I'm aware they do not run Under 8s or 9s and as alluded to by Mr Hicks, although the Cubs do have teams at 13s, 15s, 16s, 17s and 18s, they all struggle for numbers. If you read the Keighley News report for the Under 18s magnificent win at Leigh East last Sunday you will read that they travelled with 13 players.

In my opinion, if a problem is to be solved we need to first recognise that there is a problem.
[i
In view of some feedback I have received from Jason and Graham I would like to clarify the following points.

It was Jasons idea to have the Cougars train at Utley, not the Cubs.

Graham is not saying that "he wont open Cougar Park, just to stage a Cubs game" as I stated. He is saying that if games go ahead they must not come with a financial cost to the Cougars. He is not saying that they can't play there, he is saying that the cost of the games must be met by the Cubs. I apologise to him for any misunderstanding that was construed from my comments.

I have been in lengthy discussions with Jason and there is a possibility that we can stage 5 or 6 curtain closures, subject to agreement with the opposition, (another innovative idea). That leaves the Cubs with the task of funding a few home games themselves. The fact that these have not yet been arranged is not the fault of either party.

My last comment regarding the "problem" refers to the last paragraph only and not the under 18s.



[/i
And to think, I only posted "to avoid any further confusion". This will be my last comment on the matter on here until a solution has been found.


Bob Gillard
Cougar Cubs Club Secretary (17 years served)
07779731435