Monday next week at league meeting i presume...

(which is when i was expecting the division structures to be fair!)

both pilks teams too do the double this year!

division 4 and the prem

Spring View looking Very strong this year

The Cadishead Rhinos .v. Irlam Hornets games will be worth a viewing this season.

Is the new Chorley side a reformed Chorley Panthers or separate

Some things don't make sense. Haydock A finished near the top of 5 last season, and Bury finished rooted to the foot of 6.

Haydock A are now in 6 and Bury are in 5???? Doesn't make sense to me.

it makes a lot of sense....

the league have made the decision to be fair to new clubs who can only put a single team out - from one week to the next new clubs in 6 find themselves facing non-A team players and being heavily beaten, or no-one cos a team doesn't show up. Add to that the fact that some sides in 6 were very good and could easily go up to Div 2 or 3 (Hindley and Milnrow were both as high as Div 1 before dropping out, and Rochdale Cobras have a really strong squad winning summer competitions!)

...it's no wonder the NWC has been shrinking for nearly 20 years - who would want to bring a new club into a set up which is stacked against them from the outset?

This is much much better - at Bury we have friendly wins against Div 5 sides, we were pretty competitive against most in Div 6 (the three clubs i just mentioned being the exceptions) yet it was hardly a fair playing field...3 teams didn't show up (and only told us after 1pm on match-day - all were 'A' teams!), and a couple of sides were stronger than they might normally be as their first (or second) teams were not playing.

as Bury secretary our club was almost made unviable becasue of 'A' teams not travelling and we had already paid for pitch hire etc...

an A team division, and a division for single team clubs makes far more sense if the game as a whole expands.

all that said...i can't see how promotion to 4 will work. i think the A teams should have an equal chance of going to 4 as the sides in 5.

Maybe should have called them 5 and 5A?

i thought that, but at the end of teh day, we're all adults!

As a player at Bury it was maddening to train hard for a game, get psyched up, turn up, get kitted up, strapped up, warmed up and then find out another 'A' team had cancelled. Plus we'd paid for the pitch, food, etc, so we ended up having to eat loads and drink loads to console ourselves.

We were a brand new team made up of around 10 experienced RL players, some RU players, some RL lads who hadn't played for many years (myself included), and some brand new to the oval ball. We competed very well in the majority of games, but it'd be hard for any team with such a mixed, inexperienced and it times, small, squad.

The first few weeks of the season were good, we were getting match-fit and hardened, and starting to gel. Then 'A' games were cancelled, the weather moved in, more games cancelled, etc. We had 8 games in 7 months, including a 2 month gap. Some players lost interest, training was hard to promote in the bitter winter months - it was bloody hard going.

As mmp said, several teams in 6 were a much higher standard - Milnrow and Hindley had come from higher divisions, Rochdale got stronger as the year went on (with some good player acquisitions!). Other teams such as Simmies 'A' could call on very high standards of players, especially when the first team wasn't playing and/or first teamers were coming back from injury.

Div 5 looks a fairly even and competitive standard and we've already beaten a few of them in friendlies. I appreciate the move by the NWC and can't wait for kick-off.