The 2014 Championship 1, known as the Kingstone Press Championship 1 for sponsorship reasons, will be a semi-professional rugby league football competition played in England, the third tier of the sport in the country. The 2013 season will see the league restored to a 10-team division following the addition of Coventry Bears, who had been considered for entry into the division for 2013, but entered the division in 2014 to allow the club more time to prepare.[1]
However, the 2014 Championship 1 fixtures did not include Coventry Bears, therefore remaining a 9 team competition for 2014. [2]
Two teams are promote from Championship 1, which will be the team who finishes top of the league and winner of the play-offs. There is no relegation from this league as it is the lowest tier of professional rugby league.
All of the teams will competed in the 2014 Challenge Cup and the 2014 National League Cup.
2014 structure
The competition features the seven teams that did not win promotion in 2012. They are Gateshead Thunder, London Skolars, Oldham Roughyeds and South Wales Scorpions plus the three new teams from 2013, Gloucestershire All Golds, Hemel Stags and Oxford RLFC. The three new teams to the division for 2014 are Hunslet Hawks and York City Knights, who were relegated from the RFL Championship plus Coventry Bears, who was part of the application process for entry to Championship 1 for the 2013 season and were chosen to be the tenth team in September 2012,[1] however the club were given more time to prepare for entry to a semi-professional competition.
| Team & Current Season |
2013 Position |
Stadium |
Capacity |
Location |
 Coventry Bears |
N/A |
Butts Park Arena |
4,000 |
Coventry, West Midlands |
 Gateshead Thunder |
7th |
Thunderdome |
11,800 |
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear |
 Gloucestershire All Golds |
9th |
Prince of Wales Stadium |
480 |
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire |
 Hemel Stags |
5th |
Pennine Way |
2,000 |
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire |
 London Skolars |
4th |
New River Stadium |
5,000 |
Haringey, London |
 Hunslet Hawks |
13th (Championship) |
South Leeds Stadium |
4,000 |
Hunslet, West Yorkshire |
 Oldham Roughyeds |
2nd |
Whitebank Stadium |
1,500 (temporary capacity) |
Limeside, Oldham, Greater Manchester |
 Oxford RLFC |
6th |
Iffley Road |
500 |
Oxford, Oxfordshire |
 South Wales Scorpions |
8th |
The Gnoll |
6,000 |
Neath, West Glamorgan, Wales |
 York City Knights |
14th (Championship) |
Huntington Stadium |
3,428 |
York, North Yorkshire |
|
Season Table
| |
Teams qualifying for promotion |
| |
Teams qualifying for play-offs |
This table is correct as of 29 September 2013.
Source: rugbyleaguechampionships.co.uk and BBC Sport.
Classification: 1st on competition points; 2nd on match points difference.
Competition points: For win = 3; For draw = 2; For loss by 12 points or fewer = 1
[3].
(P) - Promoted, (Pl) - Qualified for Playoffs
Season Results
The regular league season sees the 10 teams play each other twice (one home, one away) over 18 matches.[4] The team that finishes first will be promoted to the RFL Championship, while the teams who finish second to sixth at the end of the regular season goes through to the play-offs to determine the second promotion place.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Coventry Bears: Midlands amateur side targeted as semi-pro club". BBC Sport. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ↑ http://www.rugbyleaguechampionships.co.uk/championship_1/match_day/fixtures
- ↑ "Points System". Rugby League Championships. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
- ↑ "Competition Structure". Rugby League Championships. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
External links
Rugby League in Great Britain and Ireland |
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Gateshead Thunder
Gloucestershire All Golds
Hunslet Hawks
Oldham Roughyeds
York City Knights
