Worried Hollinwood facing an early bath

LEE Forsythe, of Oldham St Anne’s, avoids a Bentley Good Companions tackle in the Carnegie Challenge Cup preliminary round tie at Higginshaw Road. Forsythe scored two tries and kicked a goal in the 40-4 win. St Anne's hope to book a place in round one of the competiton with victory over Hunslet Warriors on Saturday.

PLAYERS and officials at Hollinwood could be putting their feet up on Saturday afternoons after this weekend.

Instead of completing their fixtures in late April or early May, as is usually the case, the Fields New Road outfit could bring down the curtain on their first North-West Counties League campaign on February 25!

And they can’t rely on knock-out rugby to prolong their season after losing to Saddleworth Rangers in the Standard Cup.

“It’s crazy,” said Hollinwood club stalwart Fred Halliwell, “I’ve never known anything like it before.”

Hollinwood have benefited from a dry and mild spell before and after Christmas. This is in stark contrast to the last two years when virtually every game in that period was lost through a mixture of frost and snow.

With such an early finish in sight — the final game is away to Pilkington Recs — Halliwell is thinking of ways of trying to keep his players on board for season 2012-13.

The league will then look a lot different. With a large percentage of the teams jumping ship to play in the new North-West Men’s Open Summer League which gets under way this spring, it will only leave a few teams to fight it out for the winter prize.

Halliwell said: “It’s a concern, but hopefully the players will stick with us.

“I think rugby union will benefit, because players will just want to get out and play for the next couple of months. We’ll also continue to train every Tuesday and Thursday from now through the summer and beyond as a long as this idiot turns up to take it.”

St Helens Wild Boars, who already had the Division Four title in the bag, were due to visit Hollinwood last Saturday. However, they informed their hosts they could not field a side.

They have been handed points when opponents were unable to raise a team. According to Halliwell, this has happened to them three times this term.