"Batley Bulldogs, Halifax Panthers, London Broncos and York Knights will also go into the hat for the draw for the Semi-finals of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup. The draw will be made on the weekend of 17/18 June and ties played on the weekend of 23/24 July."

Suggests an open draw. Plough Lane will have re-opened, but by the time of the draw, pre-season football fixtures will have been announced so I guess the weekend may not be fully available.

No idea why the draw can't be done now & done with it. However, if AFC can't manage to keep that weekend free with this amount of notice then that's a pretty poor show.

I assume it’s in case we fold in the interim and they have to make the draw again.
As a back up most amateur football doesn’t start until August so Hackney Marshes and Wandsworth Common would be available. Not sure how many IMG points we’d get for that but that might be moot now. We can’t go lower than Cat C can we?

To be honest BT, I'm a tad surprised there isn't a category just for us & Skolars.

Whilst they aren't yet public, most senior football teams will already have a fair chunk of their pre-season matches pencilled in. You don't leave it too late or you will probably struggle to get teams of the right stature, pitch, style of play etc. Once you have a few which fills your managers wish list, you then fill in remaining dates. No serious football club will leave it late.

The team I watch most weeks are five steps below the Dons and already seem to have all Saturday's booked bar July 8th.

Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/

Sorted a ground, has a 800 seater stand and is 5 minutes walk form mine so that is a bonus. https://www.imbercourt.com/sports-outdoor-events/rugby/

Those horses look like the ones Stubbs rejected and, boy, did he let some crap ones through!

In fairness, looks a nice, suitably sized joint. Though if anyone overdoes the beery warm-up, Bongser hopes they find the correct playing field.

FOUR HOURS, BT? Leigh doesn't have a railway station (as has been repeatedly pointed out on here), but we can get to any away SL ground (barring that of Catalans) in way less time than that. Even Cumbrian trips are shorter time-wise.

Move up North, mate it's what everyone else is doing.

All the speculation about playing at yet another ground (I assume RP would be used for the 1895 game, if drawn at home) makes me wonder how much thought was given as to how to handle the unavailability of PL. Surely a sensible strategy, once it was known that PL couldn't be used for several weeks per season, would have been to continue to use Ealing for training, youth games etc and a few first team games? At least we had something of a presence there and use it a bit like a county cricket club festival ground?

That sounds quite reasonable HB. Sadly I suspect Hughes & the tame Lobster are incapable of much in the way of rational planning. It might be questionable that they were bright enough to be aware PL wouldn't be available for such a long period in the summer when agreeing the deal.

No doubt Mr Gardener will confirm, but I believe it was the met police sports ground. I think Met Police FC use it and Surrey have used it for T20 cricket. Is it in Greater London or just over the Surrey boundary?