Hunslet and Batley Bulldogs face blank weekend due to severe weather

THIS WEEK’S bad weather has been snow joke for Hunslet and Batley Bulldogs who are both facing a blank weekend.

Hunslet’s home game against Whitehaven in Betfred League One, scheduled for tomorrow, was called off yesterday.

Bulldogs were due to play host to Halifax in the Betfred Championship tomorrow, but that has also been postponed.

Hunslet’s season began only two weeks ago and coach Gary Thornton admitted a weekend off is not what they need at this stage of the campaign.

He said: “We are playing now and we want to play every week.

“I think it’s a good time to play Whitehaven, in the early part of the season, because historically they start slowly and get better as the season goes on.

“Also, we are in reasonable form – we are on a decent winning streak and we wanted to take that into this weekend.”

Hunslet’s seven-game winning run is the joint best – along with London Broncos – in all three Rugby Football League divisions.

Their last defeat was 20-12 at North Wales Crusaders in the League One Shield on August 13 last year.

Thornton said: “We really wanted the game to be on, but the pitch is covered in snow.

“It is disappointing it is off, but we can’t do anything about it – it is what it is.”

Meanwhile, Bulldogs have already had one game postponed this year after their round one fixture at Rochdale Hornets a month ago fell victim to a unplayable pitch.

“It’s frustrating,” boss Matt Diskin said after another unwanted break was confirmed.

“We’ve had a couple of good wins and we wanted to roll with some momentum, but things are working against us at the moment.”

He added: “It’s part and parcel, another hurdle to get over.

“I just hope towards the back end of the season the two rearranged games don’t become a hindrance, but we’ll deal with that when it comes to it.”

Batley officials had planned to hold an inspection this morning, but - with the pitch and surrounding areas covered in snow - decided there was no chance of the game being played and it was called off yesterday afternoon.