12:36pm Thursday 7th January 2010
By Bill Marshall
Otley’s home National League One fixture against Wharfedale could have much of its sting taken out by becoming an end-of-season derby.
Saturday's scheduled encounter between the sides at Cross Green was called off today after the RFU gave permission for clubs to postpone matches without the need for a referee inspection.
Otley’s secretary Marc Lawrence said: “The ground is frozen and we have at least five inches of snow lying on top.”
A likely new date for the match is Saturday, May 1, as long as the Rugby Football Union agree to an extension of the season.
Lawrence said: “It would be a pity if we had to play it then as a lot of the impact of the match would go as both sides would pretty much know where they were going to finish and it could be the last game of the season.”
The Dalesmen’s trip to Esher, which was snowed off on December 19, has already been rearranged for February 6, and last weekend’s home game against Blaydon has been pencilled in for March 20, so the Greens have no free Saturdays between now and the end of the season.
Other derbies in peril this weekend are Huddersfield’s trip to Bradford & Bingley in National League Two North and the visits of Bradford Salem to Keighley and Yarnbury to Skipton in Yorkshire Division One.
Another casualty could well be Baildon v Aireborough in Yorkshire Division Three, while it is not expected that there will be any action locally this weekend.
At least Baildon have had some good news this week. They are among 15 community clubs from the five northern counties to be erecting new sets of posts thanks to a sponsorship partnership involving the Rugby Football Union and Sport England.
Nationwide, 75 clubs are benefiting from the RFU’s goalpost safety scheme, with each receiving a set of new posts, delivered free, complete with ‘This is Rugby’ branded post-protector pads.
Baildon’s grounds committee chairman Harry Ormrod said: “The intention is to put the new posts on our third-team pitch where the juniors play.
“It was a nice surprise when we got the news as things had gone very quiet since we filled in the application forms for the posts.”
The clubs were nominated by their constituent body on two criteria: those most in need of replacing their existing posts and those who represent the core values of the game under the ‘This is Rugby’ banner.
Six Yorkshire clubs will be receiving new posts – Adwick-le-Street, Northallerton, Sheffield, Withernsea and Guisborough being the others.
Cleckheaton (home to Beverley): J Massarella; M Ashworth, Matt Piper, P Murphy, R Hayden; O Edwards, D Castle; P Turner, S Worsley, C Mason, R Piercy, M Burrows, R Piper, L Hamilton, G Jones. Replacements: O Depledge, A Piper, T Clough, N Wainwright.
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