POWERHOUSE Championship clubs London Broncos and Oldham are both taking their Challenge Cup second-round matches to alternative venues.
Rather than the Cherry Red Records Stadium at Wimbledon, the Broncos’ all-capital clash with amateurs Wests Warriors on Sunday (2pm) will be five miles away at Richmond Athletic Ground.
Meanwhile Oldham face Orrell St James, like Wests from the community game, at Bower Fold, the home of non-league football club Stalybridge Celtic and six miles from Boundary Park, at 3pm on Sunday.
Both the Broncos and Oldham groundshare with football teams, although both are away at the weekend, AFC Wimbledon at Rotherham United in League One and Oldham Athletic at Barnet in League Two.
Coincidentally Barnet’s current base The Hive Stadium was used by the Broncos in 2014 and 2015.
Richmond Athletic Ground, which dates back to 1886 and holds around 4,500, is home to second-tier rugby union clubs Richmond and London Scottish, and housed the old Broncos Academy for a spell.
Bower Fold, now with a 6,500 capacity, has been the base of Stalybridge Celtic, currently of the Northern Premier League Division One West, since their formation in 1909.
The club were founder members of the Football League Third Division North in 1921, but spent only two seasons at that level.
Oldham, nomadic after selling their own Watersheddings ground for housing in 1997, used Bower Fold in 2016 and 2017 and again in 2020 and 2021.
They have also played at non-league football club Ashton United’s Hurst Cross and the multi-use Vestacare (Whitebank) Stadium in Oldham and started a third spell at Boundary Park in 2024.
London and Oldham then play each other the following Sunday (February 1) at Wimbledon in the Championship.
Oldham are top of the embryonic table and the Broncos third.