One thing’s for certain, Sunday’s Fourth Round Carnegie Challenge Cup tie between Keighley Cougars and engage Super League club Castleford Tigers is going to be a bit ticklish for both clubs.

That’s not because it’s going to be a classic David v Goliath style contents but because two families from Keighley called ‘Feather’ will be on opposite sides.

Cougars’ skipper James Feather, known to the town’s Rugby League community as ‘Buster’ will be going head-to-head with Castleford’ Tigers’ Keighley-born prop Chris Feather.

Former OakbankSchool pupil and prop forward Chris, 27, started his Rugby League career with Cougar Cubs. He played for the Keighley Schools side before joining the Cougars’ Academy and the Under 21 teams.

But he, together with current Wakefield Trinity Wildcats prop Richard Moore, was tempted away from Cougar Park by the lure of Super League and they went to try their hands at Leeds Rhinos.

Chris eventually signed for Wakefield before having spells with both Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls. And he moved on to the Tigers before the start of this year.

“I’ve still got great family connections with Keighley. My grandparents live in Cross Roads and Sutton in Craven, while my parents have moved to live in Settle,” he said. “My Dad’s still interested in what happens at Cougar Park and loads of my mates live and work in Keighley”.

But Sunday will provide Chris with a new experience – his first ever competitive game against his home-town club.

“When I played for Bradford Bulls we played some friendly games down here at Cougar Park but this will be the first time I’ve played against the lads in a competition fixture.

“I’ve been getting some good natured stick from the lads I know who still live in Keighley and they’ll no doubt be continuing that from the sidelines on Sunday. Still that’s just part of the game isn’t it?”

Not that Chris knows much about the current crop of Cougars. He said: “I just know people like Buster and Jamaine Wray. I don’t know much about the rest.

“We’ll be doing some research into the Cougar players later this week but I know that they’ve beaten both Gateshead Thunder and Oldham, so they must be handy.

“We’re going well at Castleford and our results speak for themselves. We’ve made an encouraging start to the 2009 engage Super League season and it’s up to us to maintain that form.

“We’re all looking forward to Sunday’s Cup tie and we’re taking nothing for granted”.

James ‘Buster’ Feather, 24, the Cougars captain and starting hooker, met his namesake – they’re not related - for a pre-Cup tie chat at CougarPark this week.

“This is going to be the biggest match of my club career with the Cougars,” he said. “And it’ll be the first time I’ve ever played against Castleford Tigers.

“We’ve been working hard in training and we’re going into the match with the right kind of attitude.

“It was very disappointing to lose in the way we did at Swinton Lions last Sunday and this Cup tie against a Super League club gives us the ideal opportunity to put the record straight for our fans.

“Castleford have been playing well in the engage Super League and we’re under no illusions about the size of the task we’re facing on Sunday.

“With any luck there’ll be a big crowd at Cougar Park and there’s lots of excitement building up around the town.

“We’re just going to do our best and enjoy the occasion. All the pressure will be on them to beat us so we can concentrate on playing our normal game”.

Keighley-born Buster has been a virtual ever present in Cougars team for the last three years and he leads Co-operative Championship One team from the front and by example.

“It’s going to be a very special occasion and game,” said Buster, “and we’re hoping that as many people from the town as possible come down to CougarPark to shout us on against the Tigers.”