Summer switch goes to the vote

RUGBY: CLUBS from the National Conference League, including Saddleworth Rangers, Oldham St Anne’s and Waterhead, will be asked to vote on whether the competition switches to summer for 2012.

The NCL management committee have unanimously taken the decision to strongly recommend to all 38 clubs that they accept the invitation of the Rugby Football League to play as the “The Conference League (North)” from March next year onwards. The show of hands will take place on Monday.

“At the request of the NCL clubs, we have worked long and hard with the RFL through the Community Board, to come up with what the NCL management feel is an attractive and workable summer competition for the clubs,” said NCL chairman, Trevor Hunt.

“And we are unanimously agreed that this is the way forward for the NCL clubs, the NCL League and the sport in general.”

Saddleworth Rangers and Oldham St Anne’s support the change to summer, while Waterhead remain undecided.

Under licence to the RFL, the NCL management committee will administer the new 2012 summer competition to the same operational and competition rules as the ones they currently operate for their winter league.

Once the League is up and running, the RFL and NCL will work together to fine-tune these operational rules over the 2013 and 2014 seasons to ensure the continuing success of the tier three competition.

This summer league will operate at tier three level in the new pyramid structure and will sit directly under Super League (tier one), the Championship and Championship One (tier two).

It will provide a direct promotion opportunity into tier two for any clubs with such ambitions.

A third successive bad winter has left the clubs without fixtures for almost three months in some cases and with a massive backlog to get the schedule of games completed in the league.

The Conference Youth League already play in summer and other junior leagues are seemingly set to follow.

The only change to what they do now, that the senior club’s players and administrators would see, is that they would play in summer rather than winter.