Lancashire action group

We have now released 8 issues of our critically acclaimed fanzine and have over 3,000 twitter followers, have over 740 members in our private facebook group and a newsletter mailing list of over 800.  Our fanzine 'Not the Spin' has grown beyond all expectations and now has a readership in its many thousands. 

We have compiled an excellent list of contributors  including the respected writers Roy Cavanagh MBE (see pic), Paul Fitzpatrick formerly of the Guardian and Stuart Brodkin formerly of the Daily Express.

The day after we sent Lancashire a copy of the fanzine the Club banned Ian Lomax, the Executive Editor of Not the Spin and former life member Timothy St Ather from Old Trafford.  Despite Ian having had two cordial meetings with a Director of the Club shortly afterwards, that ban remains in place today. The publicity in the National Press that this draconian action created has also helped to turn the fanzine into a huge success. 

After promising to answer questions that the Action Group had, the Board then refused to then reply to questions that Ian submitted in his meetings, not even giving Ian a standard reply. "Getting ignored by the Club made me feel like I was a Member again." The Club in the last 2 years have answered all our questions put to them in advance of the AGM. We still strive for better communication between the Board and its membership.

The jobs for the boys mentality that the Club has often been accused of in the past seems to be slowly changing.  Although Director of Cricket Paul Allott, head coach Glen Chapple and assistant coach Mark Chilton have no experience in playing for or coaching outside the Club recent appointments Graham Onions (bowling coach) and Dale Benkenstin (batting coach) have already seen an improvement in the teams performance and the team look far better equipped to challenge for the County Championship than any other stage in the last 10 years. 

A gripe for many supporters is the embarrassing statistic that the Club, despite large resources both playing and financially, have only won the County Championship once in the last 86 years. It is one of the most sorry statistics in professional sport. The glory years of the one-day successes of the 1970's and 1990's have also become a distant memory .  Contrast the 16 one day major trophies won between the inception of the Gillette Cup in 1963 and 1999 (an impressive 7 more than any other Club) with just the one solitary success in the following 21 years. What an incredible decline in fortunes which has coincided with the Club being run by a Board that has the playing side way down in its list of priorities. 

Who knows what having to move a potential home knockout T20 tie in 2018, because the Board had scheduled a Pop concert  at the same time, did for the teams morale. 'Some might say' the team did well to 'not look back in anger' at the Liam Gallagher concert being played at Old Trafford rather than seeing Liam Livingstone smashing 6's into one of the many red sheds that adorn the ground.

The Club still suffers from all types of communication problems with ticketing, membership and website issues occurring consistently throughout this century. Many complaints, however valid, to the Club is treated with a knee-jerk reaction of 'we never make a mistake' and the Club adopts a far better 'self-defence' shown by the majority of the Yorkshire middle order.

We will continue to ask probing questions at the Clubs AGM and stand up for members and supporters rights. Members forums no longer allow questions on Clubs facilities and we are told of dozens of questions that Club officials simply refuse to answer. Whilst other Counties have increased their Membership, Lancashire as well as losing a museum and a championship pennant have lost around an incredible 8,500 members since the turn of the century and the Board seem oblivious to this incredibly damning statistic.