As a youngster in St.Helens no better time was had by all on a summer Sunday afternoon than to spend an hour with your mates in a rowing boat on the local Taylor Park lake. For two pence we could cruise all around the lake until a large gentleman on the edge of the boathouse ruined our simple pleasures by raising a megaphone to his mouth and shouting "Come in No 24 your time is up!" It is also surely now right for any kind gentleman of the Lancashire County Committee to put a megaphone to his mouth and announce to all the clubs under his control that, as far as the County Cup competition is concerned, it is, "time to come in, your time is up!"

Though the Lancashire County Cup competitions were once eagerly awaited by all clubs and the expectation of the draws was anticipated with considerable interest, attitudes and priorities have changed over the years. The emergence of an open game encouraging full time and part time professionalism and the intensity of the league structures and their financial implications for all clubs has removed any County Cup competition from centre stage. Indeed anyone looking closely at its progress this year and assessing its impact on clubs at all levels would conclude that it has become a nuisance and an irrelevance to their ambitions. I am sorry to say that the Lancashire County Cup competition has, sadly, become a tired out of date intrusion on the regular season which, despite the obvious enthusiasm and hard work of the committee members who organize it, is an anachronism.

At time of writing my own club fixture secretary has spent hours of his valuable time attempting to organize a single match in the competition,such is the disinclination of clubs to play, or such are the difficulties on and off the field they are experiencing. Of the eight First Round matches scheduled to be played four - 50% of the fixtures - have already been conceded by major clubs who genuinely do appear to have far greater priorities. In the other four ties a number of clubs have already, or will, field their 2nd XV against a club lower down in the leagues. What sort of a competition is this? How can any club attempting to better itself in the league system, retain its place in a particular division, place any emphasis on a County Cup competition which is treated in such a way?

Whatever the excitement generated in the past and whatever the interest stirred among the clubs whenever the cup draw came around, times and conditions have changed. Now a cup match is greeted by groans around many a club bar as coaches, players,and committee see it as an unwelcome imposition, even an irrelevance, on an already demanding season. Sorry, but while I can admire the generous and voluntary spirit of those who organize the competition the actions of those clubs who hand walkovers to the opposition,  field 2nd XVs,  or prevaricate with fixing a match date would surely indicate that it really is time for someone to stand up and shout, "Come in,your time is up!"

Ray French