THE Christmas holidays of York, York RI and Malton and Norton have been cut short with all three clubs now set to play league matches tomorrow.

Frozen pitches forced the club's respective ties to be called off at the weekend and under league rulings, any postponed games should be played on the first available Saturday.

This means York will have to travel to Hull, York RI to Keighley and Malton and Norton to Barnsley.

Leslie Bentley, the secretary of the RFU North competitions committee, said: "All games postponed in the league on Saturday will be played tomorrow unless one of the clubs is involved in County Cup competitions, or have other league fixtures rearranged for that day.

"We know sides have players missing through holidays, or there are those who are getting married, but clubs have to get out their best possible 15 on the day."

York RI are the worst hit by the decision for their match at Keighley to go ahead, with the Railwaymen busy trying to piece together a team.

Tim Barley, John-Paul Wong, Paul Reid and Mike Wilkinson are among those who will be missing, and club representative Nigel Lowery said: "I can't see who'd be happy at the decision to play on this weekend.

"We purposely leave this date blank as we know we would struggle to get people to play."

With RI missing two front row players, they face a few problems in naming a squad for the trip, but with a threat of a two-point penalty for the failure to play, they will have to travel.

In contrast neighbours York are slightly strengthened for their rearranged fixture on the east coast.

York will welcome Stuart Davies to the centres for the clash after he was originally going to miss the trip to Gary Pearce's Hull charges.

Rob Karma and Sam Arkle have also had a week longer to recover from knocks they were carrying.

The only absentee will be Al Hurst.

Malton will have to make one or two changes for their trip to Barnsley.

Ian Mansell and New Zealander James McKay are both unavailable, so Ian Cook and Richard Webster come in to replace them.

Richard John is likely to be called up on to the substitutes bench.

Will their local rivals scrabble about to pick sides for league fixtures, Selby and Pocklington will have no such worries.

The derby clash between the two rivals was the only match in Yorkshire One to go ahead on Saturday, meaning both now have free weeks.

Selby, who won the tie 40-5, will travel to Wheatley Hills for a friendly clash.

The club are set to name a near-full strength side for the clash. Jason Cicero is set to return from visiting family in Wales to captain the side.

Pocklington will entertain a Driffield XV at Percy Road.

Due to the holiday period, the side was due to be picked via a series of telephone calls later this week.

The clash will have a certain rivalry to it with Pocklington's team manager Tim Clappison keen to get one over his cousin Stu Cooper, who is the director of rugby at Driffield.

Updated: 12:17 Friday, December 28, 2001