True but I got called negative for saying Doncaster should have to focus on Championship 1 (actually somewhat stronger words than that) but if Doncaster want stability it will be in Championship 1 and I'm sure people would prefer a stable club midtable in Championship 1 than a yo-yo club with financial problems (which of course gets to the question of why if P & R is so damaging it is retained at that end of the Championship

I agree with your understanding of what broken time payments were for, but you need to ask why a club itself would want to pay broken time money in order to get certain players to play for them? Paying broken time payments was a not an act of charity, it was a commercial decision for the benefit of the clubs who paid them.

nice try, but old bait

Apparently in Yorkshire the County RFU turned a blind eye to broken time payments and allowed the Yorkshire Senior League (yes there were RU leagues then) a say in running itself. However, the 12 clubs in it turned it into a closed shop and when in the 1894-95 season the clubs re-elected Wakefield Trinity and Hull over second tier champions Morley and runners-up Castleford yet again excluding the second tier clubs the RFU wanted to take the league over themselves and thus 11 of the 12 clubs (with the exception of Dewsbury) decided to plan to break away.

In Lancashire the (3 tier) league was run directly by the County RFU with test matches for promotion and relegation (bottom to play top and 2nd bottom to play 2nd) and thus this issue didn't arise. However, they were stricter on broken time payments and after Salford, Wigan and Leigh got expelled from the league for broken time payments 9 clubs decided to join the Yorkshire clubs in breaking away (ironically Salford weren't one of them) and the two Cheshire clubs of Runcorn and Stockport switched as well, possibly to play at a higher standard than they could in Cheshire but not certain.

Initially there were no plans to have lower divisions as it was assumed eventually the NRU would rejoin the RFU, although some expansion to allow separate Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues did occur in 1896. However, second level clubs, especially in Lancashire, who relied on big matches against the clubs that had broken away started to switch even though it initially meant just friendlies and Challenge Cup. While it took longer for Yorkshire clubs to switch en masse due to them not having been treated well by bigger clubs, the Lancashire clubs largely switched in 1897 and professional second and third competitions were formed (although the third one only lasted a season), and the RU leagues were scrapped. In 1898 a professional Yorkshire Second Competition was formed but this was as a continued RU league in Yorkshire (no idea when it eventually was scrapped).

There's a lot more information than this about the time though in Mike Latham's book The Rugby League Myth: Forgotten clubs of Lancashire, Cheshire and Furness

True , bad manners on my part

Serious issues being discussed , apologies

I find it somewhat ironic that you a supporter of a club with similar problems to the clubs in the championship makes light of discussion to try to rectify those problems

Maybe you also are following the RFLs idea's for growth and that is why your attendances are , lets say , in need of improvement

Then you obviously misunderstand the concept of irony as much as you misunderstand the problems that Quins RL face.

I don't buy into the whole faux-concerned obsession about attendances, because 1) it's strictly for cretins, 2) I think it's more important to focus on the overall management and stability of the club rather than just the one issue elevated well above it's status by cretins too stupid to see anything other than the most superficial observation.

The reason we the fans of clubs struggling outside SL seem obsessed with attendances is because they are and always will be our main source of income and therefore survival

If your club because it is based in London can continue to attract individual investors to provide the finances to pay its way then good for you

Unfortunatley that type of investor is becoming harder if not completely impossible to attract at the level we now find ourselves

This thread was about Doncaster and peoples hopes for its survival as a club , it will only survive ,continue and hopefully prosper if it can attract more 'paying on the gate ' fans

What they dont need is another ' local boy made good ' walking in telling everybody they should be in SL and they are going to get them there

The funny thing is you really believe it happened