Sounds a great idea. https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... eparation/

Sounds a great idea. https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... eparation/

Sounds a good idea doesn’t it. It also says we are playing York at home on Boxing Day and then the Yorkshire cup kicks off Jan 5-6.

This sounds like the sort of pre-season we need. Games against the types of sides we will actually face in the league.

Batley,Halifax,Dewsbury, Featherstone,Bradford,Hunslet,York and Keighley. These are all the club's taking part.

Sounds like a decent little pre-season money spinner and a good way to get people watching pre-season games too

What happens if you lose your 1st game? Have the losing clubs got some sort of agreement to play one another so it maintains a pre season schedule?

Great idea! Looking forward to the whole event. I hope some of the games don't clash so I can get to some other Yorkshire Cup games.

presumably only first round of games are actually set in stone and the teams knocked out after each round then schedule friendlies against each other.

As I posted, that would be logical and fine as long as all parties stick to it. The idea looks a good one and should add some interest. Why not play some of the games at the same venue to save costs? The whole concept relies on every game being played without postponed matches due to cold weather etc.

Possibly a round robin competition rather than a straight knock-out competition?

Or maybe the knocked out clubs arrange to play each other

I'm sure they'll have something in place for all the various "what ifs". The main thing is it's a cracking idea that seems to have excited fans of all the club's involved. Well done to the various Chairmen who've devised this.
With the boxing day York game, at least one game in this competition (musnt be seen to be arrogant) the Transatlantic cup game with Toronto, and presumably the Joe Phillips game with Keighley, pre season is looking a lot more structured and meaningful.

What did Chalmers mean by "Not every club by the way - there were a number of clubs running with the hares and hunting with the hounds - but there are enough like-minded clubs to get the concept away in January 2019." Is that just Sheffield and Donny?

I've no idea what he was on about with that cryptic comment

In fact, and I'm far from being alone in this, I'm getting a bit weary of Chalmers using his T&A column to constantly take pot shots at everyone. It is making himself unpopular (not bothered about that) but also reflecting very badly on our club, by association (which I [iam[/i bothered about).

Who does it make him unpopular with?

Well, we can start with Neil Hudgell. OK, he's probably not bothered about that. But I suspect Hudgell is speaking on behalf of quite a few SL chairman though.

Then, there's clearly quite a few people on TRL forums who are tiring of his constant 'chip on the shoulder' type posts. Again, you might say 'who cares?'. But when we are all trying not to be 'arrogant', I don't think it helps when our Chairman is constantly coming up with cryptic digs at everyone.

Basically, I wish he'd concentrate his energies on building up our club, rather than criticising others. I guess I just don't see how it helps anyone.

I may be wrong but I actually think he is going back to just before the vote regarding the new structure when certain teams were saying one thing in the meetings the champ and league 1 clubs were having with regards to how they were going to vote, whilst in the background away from prying eyes etc they were planning on doing exactly the opposite.Its difficult to tell considering his columns become more Tinker Tailor Solider Spy by the week.

The Batley chairman has mentioned something similar to Chalmers. Some of the Championship clubs said they would vote against the restructure in meetings with Chalmers and the advisory board,then on vote day did the opposite.

This was also my understanding of what he was talking about. I didn't get the connection to the Yorkshire Cup though.
Praising an owner is nerve wracking after some of the previous characters, but Chalmers seems to be doing a good job of building up positivity around Odsal again. Nobody's perfect and I agree with the comments made on here about some of his outbursts. There's no need for it. He seems to have built bridges with a number of clubs and forged good relationships with their chairmen. However if someone gets up his nose he doesn't hold back from saying so in public. A club Chairman should be able to rise above that stuff.
If this turns out to be his only fault then I guess we'll learn to live with it. It is wrong though, but shouldn't distract from the overall excellent job he appears to be doing.

Every non super league team in yorkshire are in it. They are therefore the "like minded clubs" and for whatever reason Sheffield and Donny didn't want to be involved.

Chalmers may be a bit marmite but actually there's plenty of evidence that he's seen as a trusted advocate for the lower leagues by many other clubs. I realise he can antagonize but part of me is pleased that there's someone willing to stand up for the clubs outside of SL. Or at least stand up for those clubs that don't toe the SL line through duel reg induced fear.

Yes, I think that's correct. I think he's mentioned before about clubs, not wanting to upset their loan or dual-reg partners, who said one thing and voted otherwise.

Being said over on TRL that we'll start the Yorkshire Cup on January 6th with a game against Halifax, part of a double header with Batley vs Hunslet. The other games on the same day at Featherstone

Also, the first round losers will go into a 'Plate' competition.

It seems another intense pre season the, we’ve confirmed York anD Giants plus a comp with a plate option if we lose in rd 1

Plus the game against Toronto.

Blimey. How many games will we play in total ?

Five.

Good job "pre-season" covers quite a long time. We could do with starting next week..