Cleckheaton start their competitive season tomorrow with a North Division One league clash at Hull Ionians.

But that match was only confirmed on Wednesday night when an RFU hearing in Bristol overturned Ionians' bid to stay in the Powergen Cup.

Ionians defeated Westoe 49-24 last Saturday in a preliminary round tie, but both were then disqualified from tomorrow's first-round proper for fielding unregistered players (Ionians seven and Westoe one).

The upshots of this are that Dudley Kingswinford will get a bye into the second round and face Harrogate, and that Ionians and Westoe can now fulfil their league fixtures.

Cleckheaton, who narrowly missed out on promotion last season, include six debutants - centre Mark Billington, winger Jon Bell, fly half Mark Sales, scrum half Scott Benton, second-row John Dudley and back-row Richard Maunder.

The Bees, newly promoted to Cleckheaton's division, start their league season with a fixture that used to end it - Birkenhead Park away.

Back for the Bees are hooker Leon Treco, winger Jon-Paul Rimington and flanker Ian Judson, who all missed last weekend's final warm-up match against Blaydon because of work commitments.

Centre Phil Greaves is 100 per cent after resting the knock on his wrist last weekend, and scrum half Joe Nau returns after an abcess on his tooth.

Keighley, 19-10 winners at North Ribblesdale last week in a club match, are also dipping their toes in deeper water this season.

They are weakened by holidays and cricketing commitments at home to Huddersfield YMCA in Yorkshire Division One.

Kevin Young and Adam Balderstone team up in the centre, and Chris Meehan steps into the fly half berth as Johnny Harrison has knee ligament problems.

Scott Amos returns at scrum half, Rob Riley is captain and Tom McArthur is the other prop.

Bradford Salem have also risen - to Yorkshire Division Two - and open with a derby at West Park Bramhope.

With Jonathan Jacobs having temporarily left for South Africa because of a family bereavement, Terry Franklin steps in at full back and Andy Dalton fills in at fly half despite hardly having trained after a knee operation.

Debuts are given to wingers Vinny Dunlop and Mark Chapman, scrum half Dave Howcroft, prop Andy Smith and flanker Steve Dagg.

Wharfedale include a couple of new signings on the bench for their National League Two home game against Nuneaton: Adam Oldfield (from Skipton) and Ben Pattinson (Middlesborough).

Tony Jackson, home from his travels, makes a welcome return to the back row.