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Oldham fixture at Spotland

This Sunday's fixture against Oldham will now be played at Rochdale's ground Spotland.

There had been doubts on where the fixture would be played earlier this week after the RFL supported the objections from Town concerning the suggested alternative venue. Oldham are unable to play at Boundary Park, the ground they share with Oldham Athletic, due to extensive work taking place on the pitch.

Town had refused to a request from Oldham to play the fixture at the ground of North West Counties division 2 League side Castleton Gabriel's. This ground has been used regularly by Oldham for Alliance and Academy matches and had been approved by the Rugby League for a one-off game after an inspection of the facilities.

Officials at Workington Town have experience of the ground and the general view is that it is not suitable for a Northern Ford Premiership game.

Oldham had tried earlier in the month to get the fixture brought forward and had asked Town to consider a mid-week fixture. The club declined this request.

Cumbria misses out on Aussie fixture

The proposed game between the NFP select side and the touring Aussies that had been planned has been omitted from the tour schedule. The Aussies will instead play against the top four Super League sides St Helens, Wigan, Leeds and Bradford in addition to the three test matched of the Autumn tour.

Derwent Park had been put forward as a potential venue after over 4,000 spectators turned out to watch the World Cup game between Samoa and the Maoris. The size of the crowd for a mid-week fixture in bad weather conditions showed that West Cumbria is capable of hosting and supporting a high-profile fixture.

Union Stars sign for Town

Two of the biggest names in local Rugby Union David Humes and Steven Wood have signed for the club on amateur contracts until the end of the season.

Wood, 24, a Whitehaven based joiner, who can play at fullback or scrum-half and Humes, 27, a management accountant both played for the Alliance team on Saturday in the 28-all draw at Batley.

Town have now signed up four union players in the last month - after the resigning recently of teenage back rower Ryan Dobie from Workington Zebras and centre Matthew Woodcock who has returned to club after playing rugby union in the Leeds area.

Coach Gary Murdock is pursuing a policy of looking for quality in the making to ensure that nobody currently down a first team place is allowed to get complacent. The club are believed to be watching several other potential targets both in rugby union and in amateur rugby league.