The board of directors finally made their decision on Thursday evening about entry to the 125-year cup competition. I have to confess that the board were split, and a small majority saw us taking our place in the competition.

In the short term the decision may cost us some money but thinking about the long game, leaving our fans without rugby for nearly a year and seeing other teams play would not have been the right decision.

Playing rugby costs money even without the global pandemic but it is the responsibility of the board to raise the funds to allow rugby to take place.

This comes through many channels like sponsorship, the TV deal, grants, merchandise, bar and food sales. I also believe it is our responsibility to lead the community back to a semblance of normality.

There may be a new normal but it is essential that we safely restore our business.

It is not viable for the Government to continue to prop up businesses that are able to help themselves.

Some normality was restored last weekend as we hosted one of the country’s first pop festivals.

It was a great day and we have to thank Knight Promotions for working with us and managing to get the event from idea to reality.

We originally put the event plan to the council four weeks ago and they refused permission for the event to go ahead.

They were obviously cautious and didn’t want an event that could bring Covid back into the area.

We appealed the decision and then to be fair we worked together over the next few weeks considering all eventualities and producing a comprehensive risk assessment.

It is testimony to both the organisation and the customers that everyone enjoyed the day, followed the guidelines and were in the safest of environments.

The community game is also on the verge of returning and Barrow Raiders have reintroduced our JETS programme that is aimed at developing our local coaches and the young players in the area.

The pathway from these sessions is our Furness Raiders team and we hope that the elite performers from these groups find their way to the college team and then eventually to be signed up by the club on professional terms.

I attended a Barrow and District League meeting this week that was focussing on the return of rugby. Barrow Raiders are determined to work together with the amateur game and in their secretary, Terry Barker, we have a man who is rugby through and through and simply wants the game to prosper.

We suggested that we call an improvement meeting for clubs to bring ideas to the table to make our area one of the strongest in the country. Ideally, Barrow Raiders would like to produce a community development plan with both a short-term and long-term vision that the local game can buy-in to and a clear action plan to achieve our aims.

There is full recognition from Barrow Raiders that without solid foundations Barrow Raiders will find it almost impossible to flourish.

.