Fryston Warriors are disbanding their open age side.
Secretary Malcolm Agar said: “The Pennine committee have informed us that they are not accepting our membership for next season under Pennine Rule 3.
“They have not got to give us a reason which seems ironic as they are asking for teams to join for the forthcoming season.
“The Fryston committee have taken this on board and are going to throw all their resources into the junior section. Hopefully, in a couple of years’ time, we will be able to nurture them through into an open age team.”
Agar continued: “Over the past few seasons the committee have realised that the structure of the open age side was lacking, both financially and in terms of manpower, and these two main areas will be resolved with the structure of the junior section.”
He concluded: “Fryston would like to thank all the sponsors that have donated generously to Fryston over the past few seasons and a big thank you to Monkhill Sandwiches and more recently 5 Star Cleaning company and Cramscene.”
Fryston won the Bartlett’s BARLA Yorkshire Cup in 2016-17, and closed as Pennine League champions and President’s Cup winners. The team also won the Castleford & Featherstone ARL’s David Poulter Open Cup and were runners-up in the Xamax BARLA National Cup, a number of red and yellow cards proving costly in the final against Hunslet Club Parkside.
Head coach Danny Bolton has been banned from involvement in Pennine League games until the end of next year following an incident at the Pennine League Dinner in early June, but the Warriors had only player sent off in league games last season.
The Pennine League minutes for the meeting on Tuesday 13 June 2017 state: “After a lengthy discussion/rundown on last season it was agreed that the Management refuse membership to Fryston Warriors season 2017/18 (Rule 3).”
