https://www.ncarugby.com/national-1/hinckley-confirmed-in-national-two-south/" rel="nofollow - https://www.ncarugby.com/national-1/hinckley-confirmed-in-national-two-south/  

Do you mean Wharfedale , Greenpower?

It was 97/98

And of course they know Moseley and Plymouth.

They adopted Leeds Tykes on promotion.

The Tykes mailing list seems to believe they will revert to the Leeds Tykes name - but obviously that paperwork has not arrived at the NCA.

There is also the question of where they will play - with the betting being not Headingley - and probably  Leeds Beckett University and with a side featuring predominately Leeds Beckett students.

Of course this is all moot if we do not get a season.

From Wikipedia

In 1998, the club amalgamated with  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Rhinos" rel="nofollow - Leeds Rhinos  to form Leeds Rugby Limited. Leeds RUFC took on a new name when they entered the 1998 Premiership Two competition, Leeds Tykes.

They were promoted to the  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Premiership" rel="nofollow - Premiership  in 2001. 

Clubs have been asked for their fixture preferences, however, I know that CB fixtures are on hold and will not start to be prepared until we have a restart date, increasingly likely to be 1st January.

Clickbait

not sure why one media organisation gets singled out for criticism by our resident simian sceptic. they are all speculating what might happen regarding resumption, for one simple reason: no-one knows - it remains TBC.

sports journos haven't had any live sport to cover for 2 months, so those still in work are dividing their time between this type of story and retro 'best game/player ever' type features... both perfectly legitimate options, in the circumstances, IMHO. 

They haven’t been singled out. Crack on

Would the game not be better served by having local leagues next season?

In my area for instance a decent top league would be Cornwall & Devon which could easily be covered using car travel.

Given the financial uncertainty this would save a massive amount on travel money for both the RFU and the club's.  National Leagues could then restart In the new format in 2021/2022.

Guernsey currently have a 14 day quarantine for anybody travelling from the UK.

I wasn't aware that you'd criticised any other media organisations. Not that I've trawled back through all your posts - can't think of anything more pointless...

The same could happen for Nat 2 . . . . with 3 up three down play offs

Lots of excitement and lots of crowds . .post Covid!

It would also stop Nat 1 becoming a London League!!!

Yes that is balanced by less travel and fewer match fees.

However -fixed costs like mortgage on new club house do not go away and spreading that over fewer games means it eats a larger proportion of the income.

Fewer matches means less exposure for sponsors - which may reduce sponsorship money.

Given we will be in a recession with less sponsorship money we do not want to give people a reason to withdraw.

Which means much less money left from each game for match fees.

They'd have to just force Guernsey to play all their games in the UK.

 

Good post Runitback, I'm a Plymouth supporter, the year Taunton promoted at 75 miles left wondering when/ if the season will start. Redruth could have snuck in too, only 60 miles, exciting thought. Once the nearest games were Moseley and Rosslyn at 5 hours on a coach. Cinderford/ Rams and Chinnor have filled that distance over the last two or three years. It was a breeze to Reading back in December, my derby couldn't make Cinderford and on day we lost but Rams played really nice rugby so can appreciate that.

 

I love doing these trips been to Darlington via weekend in York few times now, our furthest North, enjoy visiting Cambridge in the East and boy that can feel quite a journey on a Friday. Caldy a great club. These just a few, can't go through each memory but get good memories at each. Streets of Canterbury on the Friday so good to be there. Rotherham were as friendly as when they beat us another memory.

 

The heart says keep this great league as it is, so many good clubs out there but head says is it really sustainable, visited one or two clubs over the years during it who have been in relegation trouble so their supporters have said if it came to it would happy to be relegated etc. Look at Hull other week, saying six derbies now and won't miss the journey to Plymouth.

 

Definitely an interesting one, Redruth in Division 2 South, another hour down road from Plymouth in deepest darkest Cornwall have similar I guess. What keeps me going is my enjoyment for the game in the safe surrounding rugby brings. I see why a regionlised league would be beneficial.

I suspect it was probably tongue in cheek, but that appears to be the plan for Catalans and Toronto in SuperLeague, and potentially Toulouse in the Championship. Come over here, stay here for the season, play every fixture as an away match, worry about going home at the end.

Of course the two points to note on that are:

1) in the case of Toronto most of the team are English anyway, so would be at "home"

2) just because that's what's being talked about it still won't (IMO) happen!

Correct, if you don't want to play nationally albeit with associated costs then don't. 

Level 3/4 could rationalise into wider regions but then the jump to Level 3 becomes greater.

I think back to amateur days when winning was great but not the be all and endall, when players volunteered for maintenance during the summer, when coach trips were the highlight of the season and there were some great local derbies - perhaps 4 in a season. The only income was bar, subs, discos and the Christmas draw. When games were watched by one man and his dog.

Believe it or not, it was great fun.

Only two of the sides in Nat 1 next season (if it happens) are in London. 

Three - Rosslyn Park, Blackheath and Old Elthamians.

Cambridge, Bishop Stortford and Tonbridge are in L&SE Division but outside London.

London and SE is the most populous of the four divisions - so it is unsurprising it has more clubs.

Let the professionals play nationally and everyone else regionally. Seems sensible. 

And although part of South West, Rams and Chinnor are closer to London than say, Bristol !

But L&SE population is nearly three times that of SW division. Indeed Greater London on its own has a higher population than the SW division.

Berkshire and Oxfordshire are among the more populous counties in the South West so it is not surprising they have produced senior teams. 

Despite the fact you can have a Hampshire club (Havant for example) further west than a Berkshire club and they still get in LSE  while the Berkshire club has to go to Cornwall seems geographically silly to me. As the poster above said, it was originally based on the trainlines. But nowadays, might it not be more prudent to add Berks and Bucks  to LSE to avoid some of the more ludacrous trips?  

But when the leagues were first set up the North was over represented in the upper national divisions.

So as the numbers equalise and indeed we move to having slightly more L&SE clubs in the National leagues.

L&SE has a population of ~24m North of 15m and Midlands of 10m with 8m in SW.

But the only way to reduce the numbers of Northern clubs at level 3 is if one is transferred South and relegated. 

So currently there are too many Northern and Midland clubs at level 4. 

Which means two Midlands clubs get to play in Nat 2 S.

As Nat2 S is dominated by London clubs - the South Eastern clubs Leicestershire are the ones that tend to be transferred South. 

If they were to split level 4 into three the current L&SE is already more than 1/3 the population. So you would possibly want to move Hampshire into SW division and split the Midlands between North and SW.

But I am not sure if that helps with travel.

Thanks to the M5 us bumpkins down here in Devon & Cornwall can get to the Midlands far more easily than we can to Hampshire.

Barnstaple - Worthing         = 194 miles / 4 hours

Barnstaple - Stourbridge     = 175 miles / 3 hours

Barnstaple - Rotherham(!)  = 264 miles / 4 hours 12 minutes

So actually splitting L4 into North, SW and SE would probably work best for Devon and Cornwall clubs. Although I'd miss going to Worthing.  

When did they move Brum (or was it Oxon?).

You can double that!

Indeed. Living, as I do, a mile or so from the Hinckley ground, does that make me a soft southern bstrd? 

Bits of Buckinghamshire are within the M25. 

I grew up on the edge of Wood End, Cov. I know what scary is!

Mollington is slightly further north - and still around 33 miles from Brum.

And Mickleton is around 28 miles.

The SW rugby region is huge, and contributes to some odd notions as to what part of the country some places are.

And Gloucester, in that region, is also in the BBC W. Mids news catchment.

All quite confusing 

Edit: Having just checked, Claydon is even further north than Mollington - but very little different in mileage. Hell of a stretch from The Lizard, whatever!

I do not know about the number of registered clubs or players.