Give Cumbria a reason to be proud

Tuesday 23rd February 2010

One of the Northern Rail Cup results that caught my eye this week was Workington Town's 22-14 win over their neighbours Whitehaven.

Now that would ruffle a few feathers up in West Cumbria. Town are still trying to find a route out of Co-operative Championship One while ‘Haven has been one of the Championship's most successful teams during the last decade.

Town have been threatening to break out of the slide that started when they were relegated after the first season of Super League 14 years ago for several seasons.

Their go-ahead chairman Dave Bowden and his team have been trying to breathy life back into a club that has for far too long been hanging on by its boot straps for far too long.

This one result will give joint coaching team Gary Charlton and Martin Oglanby some encouragement, but I'm sure they won't be fooled into thinking that one swallow will make a Rugby League summer. But at least its a start.

Town's glory days were backed by the late Tom Mitchell and without his financial support and Rugby League knowledge they've not been able to launch any sustained drive up the tables.

In days gone by clubs and players used to fear the trip to Derwent Park and there was always the speculation that certain players would be ‘injured' the week it came to going into the den of Frank Foster, the Marin brothers and Malcolm Moss.

The Cumbrians know their Rugby League and they play the game with both passion and commitment. You know what kind of game you're going to get when your side has to play in West Cumbria! It's tough and competitive. They don't know any other way.

Much of the inspiration for the modern Town team starts with their halfback pairing of Liam Finch and Scott Kaighan.

At last Town seem to have found two players which could provide a platform on which to launch a serious assault on the Championship One play-off charge. Finch tasted success with Barrow last season and his vision could provide Town with the key of the Championship one door.

Not that Charlton and Oglanby will be fooled by beating ‘Haven. They will be aware that local blood was up for one of the hottest rivalries in the professional game and one an on-off basis Town were able to sustain the challenge.

Nobody in West Cumbria likes to be under the heel of the other club. Both sets of townsfolk call each other ‘jam eaters' inferring that the others have an easier life and are not as tough as the host town.

And if there was ever a case for the two clubs getting their heads together to found one Super League club this must be it.

As I understand it Town and ‘Haven have spoken about the subject before and couldn't even agree on a possible name for such club so there doesn't seem much likelihood of them ever getting into Super League by that route.

The question is which route would take them into British Rugby league's elite competition.

If they don't want to give up their individual identities they could surely find enough support in the area to have a dual funded Super League club in the area while the existing clubs continue to enjoy playing and fulfilling the role of providing top-class talent for ‘their' Super League club.

People in Rugby League keep saying that West Cumbria is rich in talent. Maybe they're mistaking it for plenty of teams playing the game because there's not much evidence of true-born Cumbrian talent at the game's very top level these days.

Players from Barrow - that's part of Cumbria but a long way divorced from West Cumbrian-style ‘Cumbrianism' have shown up but they've been snatched by Warrington, Wigan, Leeds and St Helens.

The RFL have flirted with playing a Cumbrian county side during the last decade without showing any sustained commitment. They've picked it up and put it down which is real shame given the pride the Cumbrians have in their county side.

Anybody who was at Whitehaven when more than 4,000 fans turned up to see them draw 22-22 with New Zealand ‘A' not that long ago thought that the RFL had at last found a formula to give Cumbria the connection with representative football they so badly need and dream about.

Then came the fixture against the Anzacs. But apart from the odd outing against Ireland there's been very little else for the Cumbrians to hang their hat upon.

It's a real shame and the way I see it if the RFL is really serious about sustaining and developing the game not only nationally and regionally the very least they could is give Cumbrian Rugby League its pride back - and their county team.

Of course Cumbria couldn't compete against Lancashire and Yorkshire, the game's changed too much for that. But there's no reason why it couldn't have played Melbourne Storm in a warm up game; a representative team from the Championship or some other meaningful fixtures.

As they say doing nothing is not an option as far as Cumbrian Rugby League is concerned.