Pretty poor joke to make on a Cougar fans forum. To suggest such a thing simply robs the cubs of sympathetic support. Your final comment shows that someone must have considered it

Some fair points, its a real shame that the relationship between Cubs and Cougars has started off like this. I've always thought that encouraging kids is the most important thing a sports club can do, it may be a cliche but they are the future.

Just out of interest, why did you feel the need to say "unlike their professional counterparts who went down there and had to come back home minus the players who had been arrested". IMHO it adds nothing to your otherwise fair argument and simply makes it appear that you do have an axe to grind after all.

...and piques the interest of us who don't know what you're on about..?!

Pardon my ignorance on this but at the q and a recently it was confirmed by Graham Kemp, community director that there was to be an inclusion and rightly so of clubs like West Craven etc.

The meeting was with Martin, not sure if anyone else was involved. My query is do the various cub coaches etc have a nominated person to deal with the club or is it each team do their own thing.

I hope and think the first option would be more productive generally.

As I say its just a question to which I do not know, can someone please clarify.

Just to answer a few points but I have said all I want to say and don't want to get into a protracted tit for tat argument on here.

1. I was probably wrong to mention the players who got arrested but the point I was trying to make was the considerable time and effort and professionalism shown by the players, parents and staff of the under 18s team was poorly rewarded. I was accentuating their efforts by comparing them to their Professional counterparts.

2. I won't go into detail about what happened when Cougars went to Wales but they returned with more empty seats than they took. As the Club managed to keep it out of the papers (and to be fair if I had an axe to grind I could quite easily have blabbed) it's old news now.

3. Yes we do have one nominated liaison officer but the correct channels of communication are never followed.

So why mention it again then ...

What is the point in bringing up an event that happened over two seasons ago ,that has no relevance whatsoever to the topic being discussed....

Whilst it appears that this may have been badly handled surely the most important thing in all this is Keighley Cougars RLFC.

The last thing club needs right now is for a game to be called off because a load of kids had a game and wrecked the place.

As for the Cubs, we all know that the youth game is important to a lot of people, however I don't think people purporting to represent them should be bitching about a game being called off in public. Is it going to help their cause? No, and it may well be counter productive.

If you've got a problem take it up with the club.

Once again, it would appear the cubs have been treated very badly.

Stealth, you might think that the most important thing in all this is Keighley Cougars RLFC, I don't necessarily agree. to me, treating people with respect is more important. I find it insulting that you refer to the Under 18s as "a load of kids". Last Sunday's man-of-the-match, James Haythornthwaite, was a Cougar Cub last year. The current Club captain, is a ten year veteran of the Cubs. I think an apology is due.

I don't [ipurport[/i to represent the Cubs, I have spent the last fifteen years striving to run the Club and have done so with a great deal of success.

You think that I'm bitching? I was merely responding to questions that were raised by other people because the Cubs like to be open and honest with their fans. And yes I do think that bringing this problem out in the open is productive. It might just shame some people into action. This problem and many others in the past have been taken up with the Club and we might as well have been talking to ourselves. Sometimes it pays to "go to the press".



Rach, If you read a few posts prior to mine I was answering a direct question viz.,



Hope that clarifies everything. This is my last comment on the matter (probably).

Ok, I might been a little harsh calling them "a load of kids", having played at that age group myself, I take it back.




It might also say to some people: We let them use our facilities and when something goes wrong they complain about it in public? Shall we bother next time? I think you should have taken a much more concilliatory stance towards them personally and looked to work on how to improve things for the future instead of going public. Especially when you consider a new regime has taken charge of the club and appeared very willing to work with local youth teams like the Cubs.

Yes a so called "new regime" has taken over the club and it appears nothing has changed!!! What a shame Cougars there was a bridge to be built here with the Cubs, past events which I am aware of but dont know the details have made cubs and cougars relationship very strained, and I for one would have liked to have seen the past buried and a great fruitful partnership forged. If you have ever watched the under eighteens play, or indeed any junior team, it is very interesting and skilled rugby, organised by people who give a lot of time to the sport. I came with my family through the Cougar Cubs to come to watch Cougars many years ago and see other families doing the same now, families which we need. Think you may have alienated some more people here.

Its a shame that situations like this arise.

I have every respect for people who give up their free time to work with young people, I've done it myself and know how much effort has to be put in. But I've always thought it was worth it.

However, and with all due respect to those who manage the cubs, the board at Cougar park have a mammoth task in front of them - not one that I envy. Maybe they should be cut some slack until they at least get their feet under the table.

I'm sure everyone agrees that youth is the future. I just hope there is a mutually beneficial solution rather than a long and damaging thread on a fans forum, where people take sides, toss in the odd insult and completely loose sight of what is sensible.

Dreamer in a way you are right, but to give the cubs two days notice, to move a game they have to play under floodlights is wrong.

There is no other way of putting it.

I think a few on here have made valid points, however I think its time to move on. Its happened and done now the key is communication with the club to ensure this does not happen again unless totaly unavoidable.

I agree with a lot of the points written on here. Obviously Barry, Helen and the players at Cougars want the pitch to be fit for Sundays game against Workington, they've done well winning the opening two games of the train spotters cup and a bad pitch wont help, but then again it's soccer thats ruining that.

Fair enough they didn't want anyone playing on it but still, to give 2 days notice is out of order. It's been a fixture since the league started in Septemeber and everyone has had suitable notice about it. If there were any doubts over the state of the pitch after Sundays game against Whitehaven, then why not tell the cubs then that they need a back up plan in case the weather does not go their way, and why let soccer play on it on Wednesday night?

Cougars really need to sort out bridging these gaps with the local clubs especially the Cubs, the u18s are all training with the Academy and i'm sure there will be a number of Cubs right through all the age groups go on to play for Cougars in the future, the same goes for Albion and West Craven too.

Bit of better communication needed next time, now these lads have missed the biggest game on their fixture list...