Here we go again, the opening day of 2012/13 kicks off and every fixture in Division 3 looks like it would be worth a watch. Sedge may be locking horns in Armley with West Leeds, but it’s just down the road where there should be a real crowd gathering as Woodhouse Warriors open their campaign with a derby against Wortley Dragons. The intensity of this derby was shown in last season’s meetings, where the sides drew 22 a piece at Wortley and more recently, the Dragons edged to a 32-30 win at Woodhouse in January. Littleborough host Silsden on day one for the second season running, with both sides now a division higher than last term and finally it is Selby Warriors who will be first to face the unknown entity of Pontefract Sports and Social Club. Known as ‘Chequerfield Rangers’ in the 2011/12 Yorkshire League First Division, they stormed to the title by winning 17 of their 18 league fixtures.

Pre-Season the focus seems to have been on all the Yorkshire League imports, but there have also been a number of new boys added to the Pennine League for 12/13 that have slipped under the radar.

Troydale Trojans are one of those sides and have instantly been thrown into the Second Division. The Pudsey-based side did lodge an appeal to the Pennine League in hope of being re-allocated further down the ladder, but we’re denied and will kick off tomorrow in the fourth tier away to West Craven Warriors.

Returning to the Pennine League after a five year absence are Leeds based unit Harehills Pigeons. In their last Pennine campaign they ended second bottom of Divison Six in 2006/7, but did thump Wibsey Warriors, then playing only their second ever season of Open Age RL, 38-6 at home.

In Division Seven we meet a new side who will be following in the footsteps of the Warriors in terms of Open Age history. As we all know Wibsey’s current Open Age side came from a very successful youth programme and since turning to the elder ranks of the amateur game have sky-rocketed from the bottom tier to the top, well now it’s the turn of Garforth Tigers. Until now the Tigers have also never had an Open Age side so the team opening their campaign with a double-header against Pennine League Team of the Year Cowling Harlequins will be a very young one, eager to make their mark and progress up the leagues over the coming years.

Finally, the most interesting ‘new side’ are the reformed Worth Village. This Keighley team existed a lot of years ago before merging with Keighley Celtic to form Keighley Town. Since the amalgamation of Town and Albion into Keighley RLFC last Summer there must be a lot of players in the district without regular game time. With the re-emergence of Worth Village a few old heads connected to the club may well be going back down, which is sure to affect Silsden, Keighley and Cowling in some capacity.

Good Luck to all the sides tomorrow (except West Leeds) and let’s get the last standing Winter Rugby League set up off with a bang!