by Allan Foster, Fylde RFC Archivist
The County Championship has long been ‘a problem’ for rugby administrators. Attempting to integrate the tournament into a structure of club rugby, divisional games and internationals has driven many changes in timing and, in recent years, the perceived importance of county rugby has declined.
Even before the revolution brought about by the introduction of professional rugby in England in 1995-6, there were various and curious ideas about the structure of the County Championship. One of the strangest was in the 1989-1990 season. The RFU decided to run the early stages of a compressed tournament in the early weeks of the season.
The Northern Division consisted of six counties – Cheshire, Cumbria, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland & Yorkshire. That season the matches started on Saturday 30th Sept and continued on Tuesday 3rd Oct, Sat 7th Oct, Tues 17th Oct and Sat 21st Oct. That is, five intense games in 21 days to be played by amateur players with jobs and private lives! The winner of this crazy group stage qualified for the semi-final on 21st January with the Final held on 7th April 1990. As it happened, Lancashire reached the Final and were victorious 32-9 over Middlesex.
Back to the Lancashire v Yorkshire group game held at Waterloo RFC on 21st October 1989. The Lancashire team on this day reflected some of the leading clubs of the period: Orrell (9 players), Fylde (3), Liverpool St Helens (2), Vale of Lune (2) and Waterloo (1).
The two squads were very strong and included international level players on both sides. The final score was 29-13 to Lancs, with Red Rose tries by Nigel Heslop, Ian Wynne, Dewi Morris and Bob Kimmins. Martin Strett converted two and kicked three penalties.
The Lancashire President in his programme notes said: “Our players have had much to contend with during this year’s campaign which has been organised by our London-based administrators into a two week programme. I don’t know how many of our London friends keep racehorses but those who do would look askance at anyone suggesting they consider running them six times in a fortnight.”
Plus ça change!
