It should have been have been the first games in the U19 Knockout Tournament which took the headlines in this week’s Catch Up. Unfortunately these games did not take place. It would be a great pity if the event did not take place but perhaps the situation is symptomatic of some of the problems that exist in Lacrosse in Manchester and the North West.
The lack of action gives us the chance promised last week to take a step back and consider the challenges the game faces.

BACK TO THE FUTURE
Back into history first
Sport is a very prominent part of modern life with extensive coverage in every part of the media. Sometimes it is seen as so important that it eclipses real news. This week we have seen the dismissal of Louis van Gaal and potential appointment of Jose Mourinho being the main headline item on BBC news. I am not sure that is a reflection of what is truly important in life with UK politics in turmoil regarding the EU, the NHS in crisis and hundreds of people being killed by terrorism in Syria.
Historically sport as an important part of life is a fairly recent phenomenon. The team sports which we play and follow were mainly organised and codified in the middle of the 19th century. For sports like soccer, rugby and hockey the rules were first formalised in Britain, mainly in the Public Schools and at Oxford and Cambridge. It has always interested me that one of the main reasons public schools embraced “manly “sports was because headmasters like Dr Arnold at Rugby considered it preferable for their pupils to knock pieces out of each other than to mix it with the local militia which they had previously done often with serious injuries and sometimes even fatalities.
Lacrosse was a little different in that the sport was adopted from the Native Americans by “European” Canadians and the first rules were written by Dr Beers, a Montreal dentist.
In the 1860’s Dr Beer brought a group of lacrosse players including Native Americans to the UK, primarily to promote Canada and to encourage people to emigrate, but also to introduce people to the novel game of lacrosse. Demonstration games saw the game established in various areas of the country - London, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Glasgow Belfast and MANCHESTER, particularly Stockport.
Activity grew, thrived and sometimes died but in Manchester it continued to grow. It was a community club based sport but one which for “big” games could draw large crowds, particularly for games against touring US university sides and crowds of over 10,000 were recorded at Cale Green, Stockport.
For sport, and particularly sports like lacrosse even a relatively short history has thrown up many challenges
For many years the growth of the game was restricted, certainly in the UK by the availability of wooden sticks. The ability of the Native American stick makers to increase levels of production was very limited.
The first major blow to growth was the 1st World War which led to a large loss of players. In particular a casualty was lacrosse in Northern Ireland. At the end of the 19th century and the years prior to the World War the best lacrosse outside North America was played in Ulster. When the world tried to get back to normal after 1918 there was no lacrosse revival in the province and it also struggled in places like Glasgow and Bristol.
In the 20th century the game in Manchester drew its strength from schools, particularly four of the direct grant schools, Cheadle Hulme School, Manchester GS, Stockport GS and William Hulme’s GS but with other schools such as Broadway and Audenshaw GS providing significant numbers of players. With only a small percentage of pupils going onto University people stayed in Manchester to work and to play lacrosse; some for alumni clubs with Old Hulmeians, Old Mancunians, Old Stopfordians and Old Waconians all being prominent in the game. Other recruits from the schools fed clubs like Ashton, Mellor, Heaton Mersey, with the strength of Cheadle being based on players recruited from Broadway School.
For lacrosse the period from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s was one of many changes and some challenges.
The number of people who went to university increased significantly which meant that the number of people who stayed in Manchester to join Manchester clubs was reduced.
Trips to the US , particularly by the combined Oxford and Cambridge team in 1961 brought back challenges to the idea that the way to play lacrosse was 12 a side ; no boundaries. The ideas of off sides, penalties, substitution and helmets and protective equipment were fine in North America but were not for us, particular in a conservative and traditional Manchester. It was only after some vigorous and sometimes acrimonious debate that brought us the game we have today.
In the 1970s we saw industrial action in schools which was particularly injurious to extracurricular activity especially sport and lacrosse was no exception.
The reduction in school lacrosse and the movement of players away from Manchester forced the clubs to think outside the box and the result was that clubs looked to establish development programmes using the recently devised game of POP Lacrosse to introduce lacrosse into local schools. Established club junior programmes at Stockport, Mellor, Cheadle, and Heaton Mersey became stronger whilst new programmes like Brooklands, Sheffield and Timperley began producing players and strong teams.
The downside, perhaps unexpected, was that the rise of the clubs led to an abrupt decline of the game in the traditional lacrosse playing schools. With the benefit of hindsight this decline was not that surprising. Club players began to start playing younger (at age 8 or 9) whilst at the grammar schools boys did not start playing until 1st year at the age of 11 or 12. When Timperley played WHGS in an early round of the U13 Centurion Trophy in 1984 the game resulted in a comfortable win for Timperley which was probably not that surprising as the Timperley players were in their 3rd year of Lacrosse whilst for the school boys it was their 3rd month so there was no comparison in the skill levels.
In a few years all the schools had given up on lacrosse. Perhaps the most disappointing was the dropping of the game by William Hulme’s. Lacrosse was in the school’s DNA. It was one of the things that made the school special and although not a major reason for the schools dramatic decline it was symptomatic of the problems. Very poor PE staff and weak leadership left the school trailing in the wake of the likes of Withington and MGS and even Cheadle Hulme School and Stockport GS. At Oxford and Cambridge William Hulme’ was “the Lacrosse School”. There is nothing more dispiriting these days than to drive along Princess Parkway and see playing fields with a few portable soccer goals, no lacrosse goals and not even any rugby posts or a cricket square.
The development of the LDO programme from the early 1980’s until this year gave clubs the means to support the introduction of lacrosse into their local schools and to raise the standard of coaching at club levels.
Despite the efforts of hundreds of volunteers leading to the growth of the club game there have still been problems with some major clubs falling by the way. Lacrosse is a technically difficult sport and if you take your eye off the ball then your club is in trouble. In recent years major clubs like Urmston, South Manchester, Sale and Old Stopfordians have all disappeared.
Manchester is still the major centre of lacrosse in the UK. It has overcome its problems in the past and certainly has the people and potential to ensure that its position is retained.
Next week, for those with a high boredom threshold, we will look at what Manchester has which makes it special and in particular examine the issues and challenges the game faces in a 21st century world where social change in particular has affected the role of sport in people’s lives.

US COLLEGE LACROSSE
NCAA Tournament
Last weekend the US College season made a step nearer to its climax.
In the Div 1 quarter finals there were some exciting matches.
In a classic favourites Brown beat Navy 11-10
Maryland beat Syracuse 13-7
UNC had an upset win beating Notre Dame 13-9
In the local derby Towson pushed Loyola all the way going down 8-10.
So we have the line up for the Final Four weekend in Philadelphia.
Maryland v Brown
UNC v Loyola
Div 11 Final
Limestone v Le Moyne
Div 111 Final
Tufts v Salisbury

The Div 1 Women’s Tournament is also reaching its climax.
In the quarter finals the results were;
UNC 10 -6 Notre Dame
Maryland 18-3 U Mass
Syracuse 12-11 Southern Cal
PennState 8-4 Univ Penn
It is looking more and more that the perennial powerhouse Maryland will take some stopping.

We will be covering the finals next week but the games will be covered on TV if you look hard enough. The house manager of the apartment building Christine and I live in is another sports nut and he said he watched lacrosse on a BT sport channel.