Lancashire action group
The Action Group was originally formed in 2014 due to the major unrest at the club caused by a combination of poor playing performances and inadequate supporters facilities after the redevelopment of the ground.
On the playing side, after our co-founder member Roger Ollier had two meetings with director of cricket, Mike Watkinson and chief executive Daniel Gidney, we campaigned for changes to the playing structure and after overseeing yet another relegation Watkinson left the Club.
We then completed our own members survey regarding facilities and after receiving hundreds of replies compiled a dossier with 34 recommendations. With dissatisfaction in the air the Club did act on some of our recommendations such as refurbing the old Red Rose suite, allowing fans onto the playing field during intervals, bringing back the library and improving disabled facilities.
The Club then formed a Members Representative Group (MRG) to allow members to "connect" with them and some members of our own Action Group joined. The MRG, however, has proven to be ineffective and well-intentioned souls have wasted three years of their time with the club not allowing them to achieve anything of significance. Timothy St Ather a former MRG member gave his colourful and hilarious review of his time on the MRG in our fanzines 'Not the Spin' launch edition in April 2018.
2018 was a very busy year for us. In just a year since we launched our twitter page we have now over 1,700 followers, have 340 active followers on our facebook group and a newsletter mailing list of over 600. Our fanzine 'Not the Spin' has grown beyond all expectations and now has a readership in its many thousands. Finally in December we launched this website.
We have compiled an excellent list of contributors over the last few months including the respected writer Roy Cavanagh MBE (see pic) & Paul Fitzpatrick formerly of the Guardian.
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 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."
In 2018 the Club, despite being many observers tips, to win the County Championship, were relegated from Division 1 for the third time in the last five years they have played in the top Division. The 1 day team continued to struggle and Liam Livingstone resigned as Club Captain. Paul Allott who had previously been voted off the Clubs committee by members only to be co-opted back on by the Board is now Director of Cricket despite having never being interviewed for the post and was part of the Board that appointed himself.
The jobs for the boys mentality that the Club has often been accused off in the past seems even more prevalent today. The director of cricket, head coach, performance director, academy director and 2nd team coach have all only played cricket for Lancashire and have never officially coached at any other Club. What a great diversity of ideas they must bring to the table. And fans wonder why the only Championship win since 1934 came from a team coached by an 'outsider'.
The Club still suffers from all types of communication problems with ticketing, membership and website cock-ups occurring consistently throughout last season.
We will continue to ask probing questions at the AGM (even though they refused to answer some pre-submitted questions at this years AGM). and stand up for members and supporters rights. Members forums now disgracefully no longer allow questions on facilities and we are told of dozens of questions that Club officials simply refuse to answer. Whilst other Counties have increased their Membership, Lancashire have lost an incredible 8,500 members since the turn of the century and the Board seem oblivious to this incredibly damning statistic.