Barley Mow

According to @del capo on the NCL forum: "Round 1 oulton stanningley west bowling clock face heworth army navy raf newsome panthers doncaster toll bar ashton bears orrell st james lowca hammersmith hill hoists medway dragons west warriors haresfinch fryston south wales jets and edinburgh eagles Round 2 10 winners from above + hunslet arlfc west hull mayfield wath brow thatto heath york acorn siddal lock lane leigh miners hull dockers Some invitees declined for a number of reasons and GB Police are to tour Australia."

Workington confirmed their 1895 cup group as being them, Barrow and Whitehaven when they released their season ticket details - So that is the one group of three that has been announced. The other groups should be announced along with the league fixtures in the next week or so.

Yes, the earlier rounds of the CC are being played earlier this year. But I think the final is earlier too, so every round has been brought forwards.

That is for the 1895 Cup - the 7 group winners plus the best runner up then go through to the quarter finals. I've not seen anything suggesting a change to the Challenge Cup next year. Amateur clubs still in that as far as I am aware.

I'd don't think I have never raised the Leigh/railways thing on here myself, even as a joke - In fact I recall pointing out that there are stations closer to the LSV than to Hull KR (for example). In this case, a Leigh fan - @phiggins - responded to someone suggesting Magic Weekend might be held in Leigh by saying "It’s closer to a train station than Elland Road to be fair". A post which you responded to with a "haha" emoji, so you evidently didn't mind it being mentioned. I agree the proximity of the LSV to a railway station matters very little. The proximity of Elland Road to railway stations, maybe matters a little in the context of this thread. All my post was doing was just pointing out that what phiggins posted isn't correct - but you will note that I began by saying it is a barely relevant tangent seeing as the subject of Leigh and railways has come up.

There was a post by @ATLANTISMAN a few weeks ago saying that he had been told by officials at a few clubs that there was a France v England international scheduled for June. That fits with what Sky have published (internationals 29th-30th June).

I'm not making a point in favour (or against) Elland Road - this is just a barely relevant tangent seeing as the subject of Leigh and railways has come up! Elland Road is closer to six railway stations that the LSV is. The closest to Elland Road is Cottingley, about a mile away. It is due to be closed when the new White Rose Centre station opens next year - that will be an extra quarter of a mile. The main Leeds City station is a one and three quarter mile walk/drive from Elland Road and the second closest of the six.

Use both sides at once and play all six matches in one day

I'm not sure I agree about the split being an indicator for aiming expansion: Your western group covers 3 government regions with a population of about 19 million (plus 1 club in Wales), your eastern group covers 6 government regions with a population of about 37.5 million (plus 1 club in France). The ratio of clubs to people is higher in the west group. If we look at the east of Pennine split, the imbalance is highlighted because of the strength of the clubs in south Lancashire - of the nine clubs there, five are in Super League. If we ignore where the Pennine watershed is and just use east to west - Leeds is pretty much central: There are five Yorkshire Champ/L1 clubs west of Leeds (plus Hunslet in Leeds) - If you looked at which clubs are closer to the east or west coast rather than using a government region (Yorks & the Humber) which comes within 10 miles of being coast to coast, then the imbalance would favour the west. I can see the benefits of clubs being consistently in a fixed group, but think (more) equal numbers would be a more important consideration - especially when (if this were implemented under IMG's system) there is unlikely to be regular movement between SL and Champ in the coming years, so the groups would essentially become fixed anyway. Whilst I firmly class Barrow and west Cumberland as 'heartland' areas, I think it is inconsistent to class them as being geographically within the 'nucleus' of the west group when you have Newcastle as an 'outpost' in the east. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be opposed to two geographic groups in a single division below SL in theory.

I think we've had this exact discussion within the last month or so on other threads. Why use the government regions? Why not have a more even split of teams (11-12) by transferring Keighley and/or Halifax into the west group? Surely we would want both groups to have a similar structure/number of fixtures. Beyond that, the only issue that jumps out is disparity in travelling. With one London team being promoted to Super League and the other dropping into the amateur game, other than Toulouse, the only eastern group team outside of Yorkshire is Newcastle (and that is assuming they are able to continue) - that's only 1 hour 45 mins from the M62. The western group has a much larger geographic spread. Perhaps this wouldn't be a problem is travel was funded, but would that mean a further reduction in the standard element of central funding?

As someone who doesn't have a club to follow anymore, I'd like to think I can be more objective in this than most people. If I were to name the number of clubs who have fans on this forum who think their club is unfairly targeted, I think there would be more clubs on the list than left off it. In reality, I'm not sure if I could name a single club who are consistently and unfairly maligned by a significant number of posters. I think it's only natural for people who support a club to be hyperaware of jokes and criticism that is aimed at their club. From that perspective it will feel like 'world Vs us' situation, but I think it is almost entirely down to perception. There is no great conspiracy of hate against any club as far as I can see.

I missed this earlier in the week, but the French Federation uploaded NATV's coverage of St Gaudens v Lézignan (full match) to their YouTube channel a couple of days after the game:

Thanks. Cornwall, who aren't taking part, but are in L1 are obviously further south. London Skolars have pulled out for next year. They will be joining Hemel Stags back in the amateur game after both have been in the pro-setup. West/South Wales, Oxford and All Golds also recent losses along with numerous other southern clubs over the years. As we've said before on this forum - it is retention of these clubs that is the issue. Although if I was going to be pedantic, I might point out that Swinton, Widnes and North Wales are all also further south than Doncaster. As are Toulouse and six of next year's Super League clubs!

Good Lord! Let's not get started on Lancashire It's even more confusing - the traditional county, the ceremonial county and the local authority county all cover a different area to one another, but have the same name.

True. My interpretation of what @Rene_Artois found amusing was that (as a Doncaster fan) I suggested that his club could be in a regionalised group with Midlands rather than (for example) their closest L1 club, Hunslet. The equivalent is, "why send Widnes to Colwyn when Oldham is closer?" With there only being two L1 clubs, but nine Championship clubs in Yorkshire, the regionalisation was always going to be less local for those on the fringes of the core area. All I was trying to point out was that Sheffield, Doncaster, York, Swinton and Widnes are those clubs, and are therefore more likely to head out of the heartlands than towards the centre.