bowes

No, I had a look in case they'd dropped into the East League or London Merit League but couldn't find them on either table.

If the League 1 (South) nonsense that people go on about on here ever actually happened, they're exactly the sort of clubs that would be signing up.

Hemel have pulled out of the CLS East Division now.

It's quite common for leagues in development areas to announce their fixtures only a few weeks before the season starts. Now it varies quite a lot from league to league, but historically the RFL were quite hot on keeping Rugby League Conference fixtures secret until only a few weeks before the season started (I think it was because the fixture lists were liable to change)

I created the article, but got banned from Wikipedia* a few years ago hence why it stopped. * I edited the actual article on Wikipedia to say it was an unreliable encyclopedia and got a life ban.

There was a Middle Anglia at one point, but it later became part of Mercia.

Do the Royal family ever actually eat swan meat for dinner?

I saw someone try to take one on a bus once. Not just any bus but one that was already dangerously overcrowded. Suffice to say the driver made him leave it behind.

I played korfball, I ended up playing for my university (Birmingham) in the national championships, though we did finish last. From memory the sport has a relatively strong set up in London and Kent but in the rest of the country it's distribution is very varied. If there's a local university playing then you'll get a local league that is a mixture of university sides plus local clubs set up by graduates from the university. If there isn't a local university playing then there's usually no teams at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Argentine_Primera_División#Relegation It's in that totally obscure footballing nation called Argentina

They played a season of friendlies the year before joining the league

Dewsbury Celtic seem to have a long history given they’re listed in the Heavy Woollen District League above

South Shields played in the Northern Rugby League division 2 and Wallsend played in the Cumberland League. Werneth had played in the Lancashire second competition but by this point were playing in the reserve league.

They had a league structure in rugby union at the time before rugby league was formed but only in the north. Yorkshire had a 12 team league (the 11 Northern Union founders plus Dewsbury) and did have lower leagues. The bottom two teams in the top league had to apply for re-election and when Morley and Castleford (top two in the Second Competition) had their bid for promotion knocked back they appealed to the RFU. I think the RFU said they'd shut the league down unless they allowed Morley and Castleford in. Lancashire had smaller leagues but some kind of promotion and relegation (based on playoffs like northern union adopted I believe). However, these leagues collapsed quite rapidly after the northern union was founded. I think Lancashire saw more wastage of teams in part because clubs were based in areas too small to support professionalism.

Basically the lower division Yorkshire based clubs were slower to switch to Northern Union than the Lancashire based ones. This is in large part due to the split from rugby union being for different reasons either side of the Pennines. West of the Pennines the split was primarily due to professionalism and there were close ties between elite clubs and those in lower divisions. In Yorkshire a major factor was the top division clubs wanting a closed shop league, whilst the RFU wanted to introduce promotion and relegation. In short there may have been local competitions but there was no second competition that season.

Unlike the Lancashire line ups these aren't final positions. Also I can't vouch for the accuracy of these to the same extent as the Lancashire ones as they're taken from many different sources (in particular the 1899-1900 season) 1898-99 Yorkshire Second Competition (East) Featherstone Goole Hull Kingston Rovers Kinsley Normanton Outwood Parish Church Ripon Rothwell York Yorkshire Second Competition (West) Birstall Bowling Dewsbury Eastmoor Elland Idle Luddendenfoot Morley Todmorden Hull Kingston Rovers were overall champions and defeated Heckmondwike to take their place in the senior competition 1899-1900 Yorkshire Second Competition (East) Alverthorpe Eastmoor Featherstone Goole Kinsley Normanton Ossett Outwood Parish Church Pontefract Rothwell York Yorkshire Second Competition (West) Birstall Dewsbury Elland Hebden Bridge Heckmondwike Idle Kirkstall Luddendenfoot Shipley Sowerby Bridge Todmorden Windhill Normanton were overall champions but lost to Liversedge in the promotion/relegation match 1900-01 Yorkshire Second Competition (East) Alverthorpe Eastmoor Featherstone Goole Kinsley Kirkstall Normanton Ossett Outwood Parish Church Pontefract York York Melbourne Yorkshire Second Competition (West) Bingley Dewsbury (started the season in the East division) Hebden Bridge Heckmondwike Idle Keighley Otley Sowerby Bridge Shipley Todmorden Windhill Birstall (withdrew midseason) Luddendenfoot (withdrew midseason) Elland (failed to start the season) Teams in bold elected to the Yorkshire Senior Competition. I don't know the fate of all these clubs but a single division was formed which ended up named the Yorkshire Senior Competition that lasted for a while as a non-league semi-professional competition

As promised: 1897-98 Lancashire Second Competition Barrow Millom Ulverston Radcliffe Lancaster Barton Birkenhead Wanderers Walkden Altrincham (called up from 3rd competition to replace Dukinfield) Fleetwood Crompton (withdrew midseason) St Helens Recs (withdrew mid-season; this St Helens Recs is not the same club as the later one) Lancashire Third Competition Werneth Leigh Shamrocks Whitworth Rochdale Rangers Warrington St Mary's Mossley (withdrew mid-season) Boothstown (withdrew mid-season) Blackley Rangers (failed to start the season) Cheetham Hill (failed to start the season) Morecambe defeated Barrow to retained their Senior Competition status 1898-99 Lancashire Second Competition Millom Barrow Lancaster Ulverston Altrincham Radcliffe Birkenhead Wanderers Fleetwood Blackpool Barton (withdrew mid-season) Walkden (withdrew mid-season) Millom defeated Morecambe to take their place in the senior competition 1899-1900 Lancashire Second Competition Barrow Werneth Morecambe Birkenhead Wanderers Whitworth Altrincham Lancaster Fleetwood Radcliffe Ulverston Dalton Barrow defeated Tyldesley to take their place in the senior competition 1900-01 Lancashire Second Competition Morecambe Birkenhead Wanderers Lancaster Altrincham Radcliffe Werneth Whitworth Tyldesley Leigh Shamrocks Fleetwood (withdrew mid-season) Teams in bold were elected to the Lancashire Senior Competition. Werneth joined the Lancashire Combination (reserve league). Leigh Shamrocks joined the Central Lancashire League. Whitworth and Tyldesley folded

Leigh missed an extra season after WW2 because they lost their ground and nearly folded. Both Bradford and Hunslet have folded midseason and then rebounded

It will have to wait til the New Years Eve or New Years Day but I can let you know this in full when I get home. I've got information for Yorkshire when I get home but one of the seasons is a little sketchy.Lancashire had a second competition (and one off third competition) with a playoff for promotion to the senior competition. Yorkshire had two second competitions (west and east) with the winners playing off for the right to challenge the bottom team in the senior competition. After the second competitions were abolished there was a semi-pro Yorkshire Senior Competition from which teams could apply for promotion (ie Pontefract, Castleford and Featherstone Rovers). Lancashire semi-pro clubs outside the senior leagues played against reserve teams (Wigan Highfield started there). I have no information on these leagues

The Championship clubs are going to vote on various areas of the proposal soon so we'll know then. Usually with licensing they try to let more teams in to mean the borderline cases get in but with the number of clubs recently in administration they may not want to.

Sounds like they'll have a licensed Championship 1 below the licensed Championship then have a north/south split. How many north wide divisions I guess depends on how many NCL clubs switch. I didn't go so I don't know the full detail

Rumoured were a franchised single division Championship with 2-3 national divisions (maybe north west, north east and south below them) above separate regions split from the RLC (but NW and Yorkshire incorporating any other clubs that switch). However, this is far from the confirmed format and there's big discussions today at the Community Congress so expect to here much more after that as for instance the semi-pro game might not go with the proposals or some NCL clubs might stay winter or varying amounts from BARLA Regional leagues may or may not switch among many other things that need discussing so I can't be any more specific

They're no worse clubs than Blackpool. But on this front they would compare unfavourable with Skolars who have reserves, juniors and their own ground.

Yeah especially for them they'd be in the right area to tap into players. If you joined you'd presumably have to cast your net wider than Hertfordshire, though between you and St Albans that's already some very strong players (not seen you playing for a few years but obviously seen St Albans in action a few weeks ago pretty impressively), but still possible if harder since the restrictions on Aussies (the reason Skolars have declined so much and one of the reasons Gateshead have IMO)

There's no possible new clubs next year unless a backer decides to start a random club up from scratch. 2012 the whole set up will change so no point doing anything drastic next year. While Bramley and Warrington Wizards wouldn't have much difficulty against the very low standard of Skolars and Gateshead they don't meet other criteria under the current rules. Come to think of it Lezignan were talking of applying for the Championship but doubt the RFL will go for it til maybe 2012 depending on the format