We (Bury) played merit league as an extra stepping stone in our development and the work done in the Midlands was really impressive. We spoke to Tim about playing in the Midlands merit league the year before the North West league was set up and were due to play Redditch as our first ever game.

One issue I have now though is that the RFL do seem to be making things up on the hoof. Is it true that the finals structure was only decided very late on? As a club that happily allowed some players to play for a summer side on the assumption they'd be back in August ready for winter, we've (and our players) have found oursleves in an awkward position with this finals structure possibly running into NWC season...

Spot on mate, we had to play the winners of the Yorkshire Merit League in the middle of Yorkshire for the Trophy. Not my favourite subject really!

twice in 4 months i can say this.............. CHAMPIONS... great win for us wigan never looked like winning. we started well and dominated the whole of the first half, in the 2nd half wigan had picked their game up but still wasnt good enough west bank 30- 10 wigan riversiders. still think it should of been wirral in the final but never mind best team won in everything.

Graceful in victory! How can you say that with regards to Wirral? We deserved to be in the final afte beating each other team in the division over the past month, included a more than comfortable win over Wirral.

Your a good team, well drilled and some good individual players, in-perticular your 1 and 7.

I dont think much of your number 8 though

Well done, was a good game to be involved in.

didnt say you didnt deserve to be there you played who you had to and got to the final.

in my opinion the wirral side that we played were the best side we faced this summer that all.

you men have been in the summer for 3 seasons and improved everytime i think you will be more than contenders next year and wish you men all the best.

didnt think much of your hooker myself

If I recall correctly the winners of the North West did receive a trophy. I gave it to them at the match in Halifax, which I can assure you is not in the middle of Yorkshire. I rang 4 Lancashire clubs to get a venue and couldn't get any of them.

It is true that there was only money for one final in the North. We also provided match officials free of charge.

I and a couple of others from the Midlands ran the northern Merit Leagues with minimal assistance from the RFL until this year when they finally took over. It wasn't really our job to do it but we did it anyway and just got sh** about it. Glad to be rid to be honest.

P.S. I'm not in a good mood today as we lost the Midlands final yesterday

One thing from the finals day at Eccles, the staff behind the bar mentioned that the RFL has provided no funds for any after match food for any of the games, fairly poor from my view that 6 teams on the day did not get fed after playing.

yeah it was disgraceful that 6 teams never got fed especially when one of them travelled from blackpool and another from east lancs, weas a poor set up really and as was said before the weekend why choose eccles its a dump they could of picked anywhere else.

The RLC Regional Finals are normally at the home of the top placed club, who provide the food. This was the case at Leamington, where I was on Saturday.

Not sure what happened at Castleford for the Yorkshire one.

Food was provided in the Midlands RL (Merit) final but then again there is a joining fee.

In most leagues the league provides stuff like this, but then again most leagues have a joining fee. The RLC not only doesn't have a joining fee but also provides all refs free of charge. There's only a limited amount of cash around and the winter clubs already feel, rightly or wrongly, that the RLC gets an unfair slice of the cake. Although nobody got any cake on Saturday, despite it being in Eccles.

A bit late this but I've been away on holiday and missed both our semi and final games.

Result from the Merit League final:

Ashton Bears 'A' 33- 30 East Lancashire Vikings 30.

From all accounts a very good, close game with the Ashton 'A' defence managing to hold out for the win after going behind early on when East Lancs showed their Pennine League organisation & experience. It was fitting that these two teams appeared in the final after a win for either side in the run up.

With the majority of the squad new to the game it has been a good experience for the lads and the club and we are looking forward to this years NWC division 6 when the competiton will be very tough looking at the entrants. We are thinking about re-entering the summer RLC next year when our u17's will be ready to form the basis of a squad.

Training for the 1st and 'A' team is Tuesday and Thursday 6.45pm at our Low Bank Road ground for players interested in joining, or pm me for details.

west bank 29-18 east leeds, quater final victory was a tough on but was made even tiugher with the ref sendinding our scrum half off after 2 mins, we dug deep and were deservedly winners, coventry bears for us next

2 Minutes? What did he do to deserve that?

he made a tackle and then the lad kept hold of his foot when he pulled is foot awy from the lad he screamed. the ref accused him of kicking and sent him off, then spoke to hius touch judge who told the ref he had made the wrong decision.
this referee has sent this player of 2 times and sin binned him 3 times whilst playing winter for simms cross.
he has also sent his brother off 3 times and sin-binned him 3 times, who said refs dont hold grudges.

Congrats mate, good look from the Riversiders, we hope you go all the way in the nationals.

According to the disciplinary notes that have just come round he's got 6 matches. I'd look at appealing if the above is true - it'd take a couple of weeks that would at least allow him to play in the semi.