IT'S bad form , I know, to kick a man when hes down and it is with a certain amount of regret that I add my size ten boot to the battery in recent letters which amounted to a rejection of Joy Harts appeal to BT readers to attend Bury FC football matches at Gigg Lane.

Devoted readers will recall over the last ten or so years that during the months of August and September, the Letters pages have published many pleas similar to Joys, of Where Oh Where Are The Missing Supporters? and that these have been followed a week later by mine, usually in terms of Theyre sitting in the garden listening to Test Match Special, thats where!

Of course this year they could even have been enjoying listening to Jerusalem as well (Jerusalem brought a refreshing change to shopping, Letters, September 15) or even attending the wonderful third Test Match at Old Trafford, literally a tram ride away, because, believe it or not, the football season, yet again (!) started at the height of summer in mid-cricket season, with three Test Matches still to be completed.

In fact with a full house and an estimated 20,000 people unable to get in at Old Trafford on the final day, its quite possible that many BT readers could, like me, have done just that.

Im sure that many local people have been inspired by the fact that the revival of the interest in cricket, and in the England team, was being headed by a fellow Lancastrian who has set such a fine example which only ridiculed his contemporaries from the football world.

There is a lot of interest and indeed participation in and support of cricket in the borough, not least from supporters of the national teams from the sub-continent.

And the Bury district has many fine clubs where invariably a friendly and family atmosphere exists.

Unless and until football in general and Bury FC in particular can inspire the public to even a fraction of the extent that has been established over the past few months in cricket to feel attracted to becoming a supporter of that sport or club, then the decline in attendances (Premiership already down five per cent on last season) will continue.

And I have not even mentioned that starting the season later and playing fewer matches is only part of it.

If Lancashire CCC win their last match of the season even without our local boy Warren Hegg at Old Trafford by Saturday night, they will finish top of their league.

Attendance at this four-day match will, I believe, have been increased, not only because of a successful season already but because of an enhanced portrayal of the image of the game brought about by the national teams wholehearted and wholesome approach earlier this year.

DAVID HARGREAVES

Tottington