PERUSAL of the EW Cartons Lancashire Cricket League table in recent weeks has shown the Hyndburn-based clubs appearing to exhibit all the traits of someone drowning.

I accept Enfield's have had good wins recently but this is surely papering over the cracks.

Enfield, Accrington, and Rishton show occasional successes but only when their professionals exceed humble expectations.

In the case of Church, they can find no solace in a paid man who seems metaphorically to have jumped ship.

The final nail in the coffin of the borough's clubs could be last week's Rishton scorecard when extras of three were the second-highest scorer.

Let's be nostalgic for a moment and recall professionals of the ilk of Allan Donald, David Lloyd, Madan Lal, and Shafiq Ahmed, plus amateurs such as Barrie Hill, Alan Worsick, David Stanley, and the late and very dangerous Tommy George, as well as many other guys who graced the Hyndburn clubs in recent years but whose legacy appears to have fallen on stony ground.

Their successors try hard, of that there is no doubt, but that special natural flair and talent is all too obviously absent. Mid-table mediocrity is the pinnacle of their realistic aspirations. The present, therefore, is grim, but of more significance is the future - those local players blessed with at least a modicum of ability can be best described as mature, and the younger players are of doubtful quality.

The succesful clubs in the Lancashire League are full of experienced players who have developed together. They will go over the hill together - who is following on?

Similarly local soccer clubs are enduring a likewise decline in standards. It is easier to go and watch football at Ewood Park than it is to play the game at Pleasington. Spectator sport has never been more comfortable, hence we now have more watchers then doers.

The challenge is now to convince today's teenagers of the merits of participation over spectating, with emphasis on the buzz of achievment over the rosy glow of peripheral association.

Hard work from a dwindling band of committed volunteers, will alas I fear, see only the most proactive survive.

NEIL A YATES, Livesey Street, Rishton, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.