HAPPY Lancashire Day!

As April Fools go, hacking up the county of Lancashire in 1974 and at the stroke of a pen sending towns and villages north to Cumbria, south to Cheshire and lumping proud, independent boroughs into the city conurbations of Merseyside and Greater Manchester took the biscuit.

Bizarrely, in rugby league land, if you take those boundaries at face value, then there’s no longer a single professional club in the Lancashire.

Minnows Blackpool Borough were the only representatives, post re-organisation, but they have sadly long since bitten the dust.

Saints are in Merseyside, Wigan, Leigh, Rochdale, Salford, Swinton and Oldham are in Greater Manchester, Barrow was whisked off to Cumbria and Widnes and Warrington were swallowed up by a Cheshire county encroaching north of the River Mersey.

But ignore what the bureaucrats say – we are all still Lancastrians and should celebrate Lancashire Day with pride.

That should especially be the case in rugby league towns like St Helens.

Here we have always had a strong affinity with the county cup, winning it 11 times between 1926 and 1990, dominating the competition in the sixties.

Who could forget that rainy Sunday afternoon at Central Park in 1984, when Big Mal Meninga swatted off Shaun Edwards to score twice and help Saints end a seven-year trophy drought?

Saints also won the Lancashire League 11 times for good measure – and the ornate piece of silverware that went with it.

And when it came to the county team, Saints have had dozens of Lancashire representatives over the decades, playing in the County Championship, War of the Roses or Origin games.

And although there was never the appetite among the fans or the clubs, that level of representative rugby league should still be in place for the elite players wanting to test themselves above club level.

In rugby league we hear every time we cross the Pennines how passionate the Tykes are about the White Rose county.

Whether you are at Cas, Wakey or Leeds, it does not take long before the “Yorkshire, Yorkshire” chants emerge.

They are never met by anything in response – such is the confused nature of our identity. Maybe that is one of the main reasons that the feeling in Roses games never comes near that of Origin Down Under.

But for old time’s sake – and for the Red Rose county, I’ll have a crack at naming a best Saints Lancashire-capped XIII.

Feel free to pick your own – there’s plenty to choose from!

Lancashire: Paul Wellens; Barrie Ledger, Dougie Greenall, John Walsh, Frank Carlton; Chris Arkwright, Alex Murphy; Dave Chisnall, Keiron Cunningham, Ab Terry, George Nicholls, Chris Joynt, Vince Karalius. Subs: Frank Myler, Billy Benyon, Eric Chisnall, Paul Sculthorpe.