Reference has already been made to the expectation that the ECF would eventually realise it had not invoiced NCCU and maybe other Unions, for ECF County Championship team entry fees for the seasons since 2022-23 which over a year ago the ECF office advised was the last season for which the ECF had invoiced the NCCU – see document 5 below.

The ECF has now invoiced the NCCU for a total of £1,086 in respect of 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26. An explanation given for the delay was,

“Due to a mixup in the office following a member of staff retiring there are a number of county championship fee invoices that haven't been issued. Apologies for this delay - the process should be much more timely going forward.”

The three invoices totalling £1,086 are available for inspection at 1, 2 and 3 in the table of documents below.

The NCCU now has to invoice the counties for their respective shares.

The fees cover teams competing in the Union stage, not just ones reaching the final nation knockout stage. The Unions used normally to be invoiced annually at the end of the season concerned. The Union then needs to recoup those costs from the counties. Maybe the NCCU should impose its own team entry fee at the start of a season to cover this eventual cost, but the NCCU’s practice was been to invoice the counties after receipt of the invoice from the ECF- see document 6 below - so that is what is going to have to happen now. Document 4 in the table below shows the amount due from each county.

1	ECF Invoice for 2023-24
2	ECF Invoice for 2024-25
3	ECF Invoice for 2025-26
4	Analysis of fees by county
5	Receipted ECF invoice for 2022-23 *
6	Invoice received from NCCU by Yorkshire **

* obtained from ECF Office when inquiries initially made

** obtained from the then YCA treasurer

The composition of the NCCU County Championship sections can probably be exhumed from LMS, but can alternatively be seen via the following by clicking near the top on the section required:

NCCU County Championships 2023-24

NCCU County Championships 2024-25

NCCU County Championships 2025-26

From opinions expressed at thew 2026 AGM, most counties will be able to cope with the invoices to be sent to them soon for the county totals appearing in document 4 above, though I have worries about the possible impact of two counties.