The Yorkshire Men's League is a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

competition for clubs in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. It is a successor league for the

Rugby League Conference The Rugby League Conference (RLC) (also known as the Co-operative Rugby League Conference as a result of sponsorship from The Co-operative Group), was a series of regionally based divisions of amateur rugby league teams spread throughout England, ...

also comprising clubs from the

CMS Yorkshire league The CMS Yorkshire League was a series of rugby league divisions in the traditional county of Yorkshire. The league was run by the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA). Teams from the Yorkshire league could apply for election to the Na ...

Pennine League The Pennine Amateur Rugby League, or Pennine League is a rugby league competition for amateur open-age clubs that runs from September to April. The clubs are drawn from West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and the east of Lancashire. ...

and

Hull & District League The Hull & District League is a BARLA winter league for clubs from Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. It consists of clubs playing in two divisions. It is one of only four amateur leagues older than the British Amateur Rugby League As ...

History

The Yorkshire Men's League comes from the merger of elements from two strands of rugby league: the

British Amateur Rugby League Association The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created in 1973 in Huddersfiel ...

and

. The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) was created in 1973 by a group of enthusiasts concerned about the dramatic disappearance of many amateur leagues and clubs. BARLA merged the vast majority of the district leagues into larger regional leagues and created an elite

National Conference League The National Conference League (known as the Kingstone Press National Conference League for sponsorship reasons) is the top English amateur rugby league competition in the Rugby Football League pyramid, and as such is the leading amateur rugby l ...

, this saw a revitalisation of the game in heartland areas of Yorkshire. In contrast, the Rugby League Conference (RLC) was born in 1997 as the Southern Conference, a 10-team pilot league for teams in the

South of England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes Gr ...

and

English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

taking place in the summer time rather than the traditional winter season. It led to the creation of many new teams in non-traditional areas;

Rotherham Giants Rotherham Giants is a rugby league team based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, playing in the Yorkshire Premier of the Rugby League Conference. It plays its home matches at Herringthorpe Stadium. Its A-team takes part in the Yorkshire & Humber Me ...

became the first Yorkshire-based team to join in 2000. Other Yorkshire teams, mostly non-traditional parts of Yorkshire such as

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

and

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

followed playing in the North East and North Midlands divisions until a Yorkshire division was created in 2004. By 2008, there were enough sides for a higher level Yorkshire Premier division to be created and in 2010, a Yorkshire & Humber Merit League was created out of existing merit leagues. The Conference in Yorkshire thus had a three tier structure with the Yorkshire Premier division at the top and the Yorkshire regional division and the Yorkshire & Humber merit league below. With the RLC growing rapidly, some BARLA sides chose to leave traditional winter leagues and join the summer-based RLC. However, in 2011, the

, voted to switch to a summer season and most of the reserve teams followed. There was a short season from September to November in 2011 with teams from

leagues

and

playing in four regional groups under the name ''Yorkshire Men's League''

The Rugby League Conference was replaced in 2012 by a series of locally administered leagues. This saw the Yorkshire Men's League merge with the RLC Yorkshire Premier and regional divisions as well as the Yorkshire & Humber merit league to create a three-tier structure.

Yorkshire Men's League Pyramid

The Yorkshire Mens League currently runs four divisions with promotion and relegation between them. Division 4 is split into three. * Premier Division * Division 1 * Division 2 * Division 3 * Division 4A, Division 4B, Division 4C The YML also runs two separate leagues separate from the main competition for Yorkshire based

clubs to run reserve side in: * NCL East * NCL West

2018 Clubs

Premier Division

Division 1

Division 2

Division 3

Division 4

Results

Champions

External links

Official website
{{British_Rugby_League_links Rugby league competitions in Yorkshire Sports leagues established in 2011 2011 establishments in England