HAVING selected a squad of 19 to go to Bridlington for last Saturday’s Yorkshire Shield second-round tie, mid-table SSE Yorkshire Division Two side Keighley ended up conceding the match because not enough players were available.

Chairman Sam Griffin insisted it was not a decision – which means they face the prospect of being excluded from next season’s competition – they had taken lightly.

“We don’t like crossing off matches – in fact it is embarrassing,” admitted Griffin of the call not to travel to the seaside to face a club who are almost exactly a division higher.

“But you have to bear in mind that it was a non-league Saturday and we had two plasterers who had the chance of some Saturday work, as did another player who works in a bank.

“He can get most Saturdays off but it was a chance for him to work a shift, and we also had a couple of players who were injured, with Danny McGee having knocked the arm he broke a couple of seasons ago, while Tom Lowther was carrying a leg injury.

“We thought that they needed a week off, while one or two others were carrying minor injuries that would benefit from a week off so they would be available for this weekend’s SSE Yorkshire Division Two match at West Leeds.

“It was not a decision that we took lightly but our coach Kevin Young rang me late in the week to say that we only had 11 players.

“We have built up a bit of confidence and it would not have been good to have jeopardised that by putting in the youngsters in what wouldn’t have been a representative side.

“However, we are much stronger for Saturday’s league match at West Leeds.”

Keighley were not the only team to concede their second-round tie, Acklam doing the same at Malton & Norton and Middlesborough at Pontefract.

Peter Morgan, who is chairman of the Yorkshire RFU’s cup competitions committee, said: “Clause 31, which we brought in to try and encourage teams to fulfil fixtures, states that a club may not be invited to take part in next season’s competition if they have failed to fulfil a fixture this season.

“It is something that we will discuss next week.”

KEIGHLEY TEAMS FOR SATURDAY

1st XV v WEST LEEDS (Yorkshire Two) AWAY KO 2:15pm, meet noon (cars). From: O Mitchell, L Carter, A Ebbrell, A Horsfall, N Holroyd, D McGee, R Wilkinson; C Spencer, W Armitage, M Hagyard, L Sugden, D Iliff, T Lowther, S Minikin, J Hannah, L Everett, I Buckley, D Smith.

2nd XV v WEST LEEDS 2nds (Yorkshire One North & West) HOME KO 2:15pm, meet 1pm.

From: M Symes, A Heys, S Mellor, C Morris, S Booker, S Welch, E Barker, S Everett, J Bell, D Drake, N Curr, L Kemp, M Pynaert, R Lacey, S Brown, J Hill, B Blackwell, Ja Atkinson, N Berry, N Jordan, S Blakeley.

Academy XV v RIPON 2nds/3rds (friendly) HOME KO 2:15pm, meet 1pm. From: J Sugden, N Raja, R Baines, D Baines, T Ojikutu, R Lloyd, A Gilmartin, J Tillotson, J Morton, D Cooley, J Wells, P Hannah, C Hextall, Jim Atkinson, P Salmon, M Stott, S Long, B Lazenby, W Milner, T Stewart, S Heal, O Sugden.