Amateur Focus - Part 1

Amateur Focus

The National Conference League got underway over the weekend with 19 fixtures scheduled to be played from three of the four leagues on Saturday.  Unfortunately three of the games across Division 2 and 3 succumbed to the wonderful British weather and the big game in the Premier Division, Pilkington Recs v Siddal, was abandoned after 25 minutes due to a serious injury.

Of all the games I have seen involving NCL sides over the past 14 months or so in my Challenge Cup journies I’ve been mightily impressed with the standard and intensity of the matches.  Most people would agree that most, if not all, of them would easily be comfortable playing in League 1 if they ever wanted to progress and I sometimes found myself wondering why the RFL don’t pump more money into this level of the sport in order to help those standards progress even further.  However, that’s another blog for another time.

I wanted to write a blog focusing on just the amateur level of rugby league as it’s not often shouted about within the mainstream media.  The BBC have rightly given the community clubs some much needed national coverage with their fantastic idea of showing one of the matches from each of the early rounds of the Challenge Cup and because of that, many people got to witness last season’s champions Siddal take on the League 1 new boys Toronto Wolfpack in the latest round.  Long may this continue!

This first blog is about the results from the opening weekend of the new season.  Some of the results stood out and impressed me but I also wanted to see how the teams that I’ve followed in the last couple of years have started the new campaign.

PREMIER DIVISION

Two sides that I’ve watched a few times over the past couple of years met at Twist Lane on Saturday afternoon.  Leigh Miners Rangers were playing host to Kells of West Cumbria in a game which I would have liked to have gone too but couldn’t for other commitments.  Kells won the game 56-12!  This was a huge surprise to me as I thought the Miners would have wanted to get their early cup exit out of their minds and start the season strong.  Kells, therefore, are the early pace-setters at the top of the table.

Kells just missed out on the Play-offs last season and the two sides promoted from Division One, Myton Warriors and Thatto Heath Crusaders are behind them in second and third respectively.  The Warriors overcame another West Cumbrian side in Egremont Rangers, who I’ve watched a couple of times this year, by a score of 34-8, and the Crusaders won 22-6 over in Hull against Skirlaugh.

Two other sides that I’ve visited at various points this season met each other and it was Rochdale Mayfield, who I saw play Barrow Raiders in the League 1 Cup not too long ago, win 30-16 at home to Wigan St Patricks, who overcame Leigh Miners in the first round of the Challenge Cup back in January.

The final victory of the opening day went to Wath Brown Hornets who narrowly beat West Hull, who finished second behind Siddal in the final table last season, 18-12.

DIVISION 2

Another Cumbrian side finished the day as leaders of Division Two after the first round of fixtures as, in a rematch of one of last season’s Play-off Semi Finals, Askam nilled Leigh East by 38 points at the Leigh Sports Village.  Askam then went on to lose the Final hence remain in Division Two as one of the fancied teams for 2017.

Close behind in second is the other side who lost in last season’s Play-off Semi Finals, Thornhill Trojans who came out on top by 34-4 against Wigan St Judes.  And behind them in third are last season’s Division Three champions, Crosfields, who enjoyed a marvellous 34-10 victory in Cumbria against Millom, who were relegated from Division 1.

In a match between two other relegated sides, a derby between Oulton Raiders and East Leeds saw the visitors from the big city come away with a comfortable 31-18 victory.  The final victory of the day went to Bradford Dudley Hill who took on Salford City Roosters in Eccles and travelled home 18-14 winners.

The match at Drighlington, promoted as Division 3 Play-off winners, who should have played host to Saddleworth Rangers was postponed due to the bad weather.

DIVISION 3

New boys Barrow Island couldn’t quite make it three Cumbrian sides at the top of each division after their comfortable 40-12 victory over Elland, who were relegated two divisions at the end of last season after finishing bottom of Division One.  That honour fell to Dewsbury Moor Maroons who came home from Stanningley with an emphatic 42-0 drubbing on the side relegated from Division 2.

It’s another of the new boys that sit in third place, level on point’s difference with Barrow Island.  Clock Face Miners enjoyed a fantastic 32-4 victory over Stanley Rangers – a side that were also relegated from Division 2 last year.  This game was deemed to be a tough tie for the side who joined from the North West Men’s League but they made light work of their opponents to claim a memorable first ever win in the NCL.

Elsewhere in the division Dewsbury Celtic, again relegated from Division 2, and the final new club to the NCL this year, West Bowling, both scored 22 points in their first home games of the season but were unable to avoid defeats to Waterhead Warriors (to 40) and Eastmoor Dragons (to 38) respectively.

The two matches between Oldham St Annes and Woolston Rovers and Rylands Sharks and Gateshead Storm were called off due to the weather.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to following how all four divisions pan out this season and will look to post more blogs on the amateur game throughout the year.

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