BRADFORD & Bingley Rugby Football Club are to honour their past players.

The merged club, which was formed 38 years ago, will present each player with a chronological number that corresponds to their part in the club's history.

For example, the first loose-head prop to represent the Bees would be given No 1 and the first full back would be No 15, with each debutant then following on in date order.

It is hoped that the Legacy Numbers project will be complete by the start of the 2021-22 season and that there will then be Legacy Days at the club to present the players with their mementoes.

However, the numbers will not only relate to first XV players, as the club feels that second XV players who have contributed to the club over a period of years should also be recognised.

An online form will be available for both first and second teamers to complete, which is particularly important to the second teamers as the records for them are sketchier.

Project organiser Ali MacDonald, who is also the first XV's assistant coach, said: "As a club which serves its community, it is important that the contribution of all players to the continuation of this young club is recognised.

"While the Legacy Number project is roughly 80 per cent complete, if you are a past player with information or records from the early years of Bradford & Bingley RFC, please get in touch via the contact page at www.beesrfc.com."

The Bees were formed in 1982 by the merger of one-time Northern powerhouse Bradford, who moved from urban Lidget Green to the much more spacious and idyllic Wagon Lane - home of leading regional junior club Bingley.

Since then, Bradford & Bingley have played at home to the Barbarians in 1990 as part of the 100-year celebration of the famous invitational club (a.k.a. Phil Deacon's most famous try for the Bees), and reached the dizzy heights of National League Two in the 2006-07 season.

Their opponents that season, which ended in relegation, were Esher, Launceston, Henley, Redruth, Blackheath, Wharfedale, Stourbridge, Manchester, Cambridge, Nuneaton, Halifax, Barking and Harrogate.

The Bees, who are coached by Hugh Gumbs and will be captained by Mat Cochrane, currently play in North One East, and that division has been split into two conferences.

Bradford & Bingley have provisionally been put into Conference B with Ilkley, Malton & Norton, Scarborough, Consett, Durham City and Morpeth.

Conference A contains Cleckheaton, Morley, Old Brodleians, Heath, Moortown, Driffield and Pocklington.

Sides will play each team home and away in their own conference before, from December onwards, facing teams from the opposite conference home and away.

All of this depends on being able to start on September 5.