The Halbro North West Leagues
Incorporating Our Sponsors ----- Cotton Traders , County Courier Services, Independent E – NRG, Robinsons Brewery, Howell and Company, James Trickett and Son, Widnes Coaches Ltd.

At this stage and with the present, unprecedented situation regarding the Coronavirus problems, it was inevitable we were going to have to curtail our season. You will all realise we did so, some three weeks ago, from the present date.

Obviously, this was in many respects a most difficult decision to make but in the circumstances as you can see, vital that we did so. To this end we needed to cancel our important and most enjoyable events The Robinsons Brewery Cup Competitions including the Finals Day and also our most prestigious Presentation Dinner. We offer our apologies, to firstly, our Sponsors the Robinsons Brewery Company, and the two Clubs who were ready to host the Finals, Bowdon RUFC and Vale of Lune RUFC. We needed also to apologise to the Bowdon Club in respect of the Presentation Dinner it was scheduled to be held at their Club. Clearly, also we need to aplogise to all our sides as participants.

The Cup Finals will be annulled and the Cups and the other awards reserved for next season. We needed to decide on the Champions and Runners Up places in the Leagues, and to this end we made the decision to award these places to those in the positions as of the final Saturday of the closure. Not easy we must admit and indeed this did cause one or two issues. The situation is indeed the most serious since the commencement of the Leagues some 17 years ago. Thank you for all your understanding.

At this stage we in normal circumstances would be looking at the staging of our Annual General Meeting. Ladies and Gentlemen at this stage we cannot schedule this Meeting, but once we have clearance we plan to go ahead with the Meeting. We are proceeding with the preparation of our Trophies and we anticipate being able to present these at the AGM, if and when scheduled.

A most difficult situation and as a Committee we’ve got to thank you all for your understanding and importantly all your support. Hopefully soon we’ll get back to playing some Rugby and be ready for the 20/21 season, all being in place, for September this year. In our planning we will inform Clubs of any decisions being made via emails to your Fixtures Secretaries and on our website.

Hope I’m not being too optimistic !!!!

Fred Swarbrick
Chairman of NW Leagues.