Will Cumbria land hat-trick?
Last updated 13:26, Saturday, 22 March 2008
PROUDLY displayed at the start of the annual Cumbria RFU handbook is one short, but very special sentence.
“Winners of the County Championship 1923/24 and 1997/97.”
They were two major achievements in the county’s 136-years history which understandably rank as Cumberland/Cumbria’s finest hours.
The late Jim Brough, a member of the first team to lift the trophy, used to relate how after Cumberland had scored a fine win in the semi-final to beat Leicestershire, the crowd scenes were remarkable.
Spectators surged onto the pitch; hats were thrown into the air and those without one threw someone else’s. As fast as they returned to earth they were thrown back up again.
The final, against a star-studded Kent side, was watched by almost 17,000 people at Brunton Park, Carlisle. Once they had established superiority in scrum and loose play there was never any doubt about the outcome and Cumberland ran out easy winners by 14-3.
Again I’m indebted to Jim Brough for this post-match view as he crossed the pitch to the dressing room and past three Kent players lying on the ground.
He later reported: “Now it had never been a dirty game nor was there spectator trouble. I asked one if I could be of assistance. His reply was amusing – ‘I’ll soon be OK. If this is the way you play your rugby in Cumberland every week you are welcome to it. One match is enough.”
That was probably the first instance of Cumbrian grit and determination being mentioned in dispatches from the rugby field – but one which has been repeated many times since.
Indeed, fast forward to 1997 and Cumbrian commitment, endeavour and togetherness won the day at rugby’s holy of holies – Twickenham – when they beat Somerset 23-14 to pick-up the trophy again.
Not Jim Brough this time, but Mark Richardson for the player’s perspective in what was the most unforgettable day of his career!
“What set us up first of all were home wins over both Lancashire and Yorkshire. Then came the semi-final away to Cornwall and that was something else.
“We had about 12,000 crammed into a small ground and the atmosphere was absolutely mind-blowing. We won 38-24 and it was a perfect day for rugby,” he recalls.
Cornwall, of course, have a great history of County Championship rugby and for Cumbria to go down there and stuff them in their own back-yard was a result which made a lot of people sit up and take notice.
But will it be possible for Cumbria to add another title to those two victories which were recorded 73 years apart?
Indeed, with the advance of the professional game, in sharp contrast to the apparent decline in importance accredited to the county championship, is there a future for the competition?
There have been rumblings that Cumbria, might in future, follow the lead of other counties and drop-out. The ghosts of 1924 and the heroes of 1997 would join in with an emphatic ‘no’.
Men like former captain Richardson, who has had the honour of lifting the trophy at Twickenham, and current coach Malcolm Brown who has been involved in senior county rugby for 30 years have no doubt.
If there were strong calls for the county to leave the championship Richardson admits he would be forced to attend a meeting and plead to stay in it.
Brown is equally strong in his defence of Cumbria’s continued participation.
Cumbria will compete this season in the second tier of the competition, so they can’t lift the top prize of the Championship.
But coach Brown is particularly up-beat and declares that promotion to the main championship is the aim this season when the Cumbrians tackle their group matches in May.
The man who made his debut in 1978, brought in when Peter Dixon, a future British Lion dropped-out, remembers that day against Northumberland as if it was yesterday.
“Times have changed and the County Championship isn’t held in the regard it used to be but as a Cumbrian I want to see us playing as a county and at the highest level possible.
“Getting out of the Shield this year has to be our target and I’m getting some good vibes already before we get down to selecting players. Perhaps if we were playing at the higher level there might be more support for us staying,” says Brown.
Both Brown and Richardson are agreed that the key is having the most experienced players available. That hasn’t always happened but Kendal are closing in on a National League spot again and word from Mint Bridge is that the top players would be up for the Championship.
They should finish on April 19 and have a week’s break before Cumbria play the first match at home to Northumberland on May 3. Getting them in then should see them full of confidence from promotion, fit and enthusiastic which would be a great boost.
The management team also hope that Robert Miller will make himself available, as Tynedale should be finished their League commitments by April 19. His participation will depend on his commitments with England in the Under-20s World Cup.
As team manager Richardson – recovering well from what is termed now as a hip re-surfacing job – is mapping out his battle plans. He is planning a meeting with Brown and his fellow coach Stuart Connell, and two selectors John Patterson and Jeff Edgar.
A long list of 30 players will be chosen and hopefully there won’t be any dissenting voices among those selected.
The other two games are both away, to North Midlands and to Durham, but I detect a sense of purpose about Cumbria this year and the best way to convince the doubters there is a future in the competition, would be to step up to the top tier.
Perhaps a line uttered some 84 years ago at Carlisle’s Brunton Park can be used to underpin this season’s county challenge – “If this is the way you play your rugby in Cumberland every week you are welcome to it. One match is enough.”
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