WEST Bowling and Queensbury will take to the field again this weekend amid increasing turmoil which has engulfed the Pennine League.

The Premier Division was reduced to only seven teams, which meant that a full fixture list was unviable, threatening the cash flow and player retention of the remaining clubs.

The contentious resolution has been made to terminate the Championship Division fixtures and promote the top five teams into the Premier and move the remainder into a reformed Championship.

Drighlington find themselves on the outside looking in after accepting an invitation to join the Kingstone Press Cider National Conference League in 2015.

The five ‘promoted’ teams are Brighouse Rangers, Halifax Irish, Illingworth, Queensbury and West Bowling.

There has been opposition to the restructure amid fears that the ‘promoted’ teams would not be strong enough to compete in the Premier Division.

Brighouse, Halifax Irish and now Illingworth are all seemingly reluctant to compete in the Premier Division and their respective fixtures this weekend have been postponed.

West Bowling and Queensbury, however, face trips to Fryston and Upton respectively.

Bowling secretary Ian Horsley said: “We have said to the Pennine League ‘we’re not 100 per cent happy with what you’ve done here, putting us straight back in the Premier Division, because we have to rebuild.’

“But we feel duty bound to continue playing and will try and fulfil our fixtures because we were one of the clubs who caused the problem, if you like, by dropping out of the Premier Division at the start of the season.

“Furthermore, we haven’t had a bad start to the season and our coach, Glenn Barraclough, said ‘the lads are playing okay and with confidence so let’s see what happens’.

“Last week we had a very good win over Queensbury so our lads are a bit more relaxed about things now.

“But what I’ve also said to the management committee at the Pennine League is that when we are playing teams like Fryston and Upton, we want somebody there to watch the game.”

Horsley is keen that Bowling, who have an average age of just over 20, are afforded the right amount of protection.

He added: “If we get beat by 100 points, we don’t mind as long as we have been beaten by a far better team.

“But what we’re not going to accept is our lads getting kicked up and down the pitch.”

Queensbury secretary Andrew Thornton spoke of his concerns and admitted the situation remained racked with uncertainty.

He said: “We were willing to go ahead into the Premier Division but that was along with the other four teams, which meant there was at least five teams of similar standards in the league.

“Now Illingworth, Halifax Irish and Brighouse are having second thoughts, that puts us in a difficult position and we are unsure where we are going to go next.

“Until I hear back from the Pennine League, I don’t know what we’re going to do.

“I’m speaking personally here but I don’t think we will resign from the league.

“We’ve been in the Premier Division before and I think we won about five games in two years because in all honesty the standard is too good for us.

“We were quite happy when we did come down so we could build and get back up there with the better teams.”

No-one from the Pennine League was available for comment but it is understood that a meeting of the league’s management committee on Monday night failed to bring about any resolution.