IT WAS with great sadness that I heard of the withdrawal of Newcastle Thunder from League One after their relegation from the Championship.

But to be honest, it was not entirely surprising to me.

In recent years, through my role as a Newcastle City Councillor and currently Deputy Lord Mayor, I have sought to promote the growth of the game in the North East. But it has been a constant struggle in an area where football is the overriding sporting passion.

There was a surge of enthusiasm when Magic Weekend first came to St James' Park and attendances at Thunder began to creep up to the four-figure mark, but there was a lack of support from Super League and elsewhere within the Rugby League hierarchy to offer any real encouragement and help to build on this momentum.

At the time we did have some well supported Rugby League ‘talk ins’ at venues in Newcastle with Sam Tomkins and Stefan Ratchford amongst others in attendance. I suggested at one of these that we should bring a couple of Super League games out on the road to be played at Kingston Park, the home of Newcastle Thunder, to pull in local fans.

However, these events quickly fizzled out and my idea was sadly never explored.

Consequently, despite Newcastle remaining a very popular venue for visiting Rugby League fans, as shown by the continued success of Magic Weekend and the Rugby League World Cup in the city, the locals have never really got on board.

I am continuing to support my local junior Rugby League team Newcastle Magpies, where we have dedicated volunteers and a group of enthusiastic youngsters and await news about the future of Thunder and whether they can continue competing at a more modest level in the game.