A MAJOR new rugby league festival has been given the thumbs up and is coming to York in June.

As exclusively revealed by the Evening Press in December, an innovative nine-a-side tournament, which is hoped to one day rival rugby union's famous Middlesex
Sevens, was being planned for the Minster city.

And it's now all systems go for the fan-friendly festival, with no fewer than 16 teams signed up for this year's inaugural event - including a York all-stars side - and some top-quality players in the offing.

To be called the York Golden Jubilee RL Festival, the day-long tournament will take place on Bank Holiday Monday, June 3 and is likely to play a major part in the
city's Golden Jubilee celebrations.

It will be staged at Heworth RLC's Elm Park Way home, and feature teams from all over the British Isles and further afield.

And although there are no professional clubs booked, the tournament is an open event, meaning the teams involved can - and are likely to - include professional players in their ranks.

It is also hoped that in future years, Super League and Northern Ford Premiership clubs will get directly involved as the festival grows and becomes a major event in the sporting calendar.

The organisation behind the festival is 1895 International, which was set up by a group of business-minded rugby league fanatics and named after the year in which the breakaway rugby league was formed.

The former chief executive of Super League outfit London Broncos, Lionel Hurst, is leading the way, and has received support from City of York Council, York Tourism
Bureau, the Rugby Football League, York and District ARL and York RL Referees Society.

Hurst said: "The hope is to start this year on June 3, a Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday, and make it an annual festival building up into a major international event.

"It will no doubt become a major part of the social and sporting calendar in the city. Year on year I am sure we will see more exciting names from all parts of the world participating, and I have little doubt that as it grows we will see some of the best players in the world at this tournament.

"We are going about it in an impressive manner. It will be a celebration of what I think is the greatest team game in the world."

Just as the Middlesex Sevens sees the union code reduced to seven-a-side, the York festival will see rugby league matches cut down to nine-a-side, designed to create more space, more speed, more tries and more quick-fire entertainment for the spectators.

The 16 teams involved this year will be split into four pools of four, and play quick-fire group games of ten minutes each way. The top two from each group will go through to the quarter-finals, with the eventual winners receiving the
new Fairfax Cup, named after Lord Fairfax, whose family have strong ties with York.

He added: "It's a tremendous line-up, quite mouth-watering and, I am sure, without precedent. I have little doubt there will be some outstanding players on
view."

Hurst, a Cheltenham-based lawyer, believes the best way forward for rugby league is to expand the game out of its traditional M62 corridor base and increase the sport's world-wide appeal. That belief is reflected in the teams involved.

"Principally the aim is to see the game spread and grow," he said.

Teams are: York Ironsides (a select representative side), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Cork, Dublin, North Wales, Cardiff, RAF, Royal Navy, Army, Teesside Steelers (Summer Conference champions), South Asia (led by former England international Ikram Butt), City of London, Les Hussards de Paris, and FC Lezignan (from Corbieres, south west France).