Hunslet Hawks chairman Grahame Liles yesterday criticised York Wasps following the late postponement of the clash at South Leeds Stadium.

Liles explained that Hawks had opened the gates for supporters 90 minutes before the 3.30pm kick-off, after both clubs and referee Ben Thaler agreed the pitch was fit to play.

And he criticised Wasps for then claiming the pitch was dangerous, forcing another inspection which led to the match being called off just 30 minutes before kick-off.

"My coach said it was fit and York agreed. Half an hour later York changed their mind, but the ground can't have deteriorated within half an hour. We would not have opened the gates otherwise," said Liles.

"The game was given the go-ahead and we opened the gates, and the next thing I knew they're inspecting again and York did not want to play.

"Having said 'yes' how can they turn around? I don't know if the pitch was fit to play or not but once they've agreed to play they should have stuck to that.

"It's disappointing that we opened the gates only to call the game off. I was disappointed that, after they first said yes, York did not want to play."

Liles did not say how much money his club would have lost through things like catering, stewarding costs, unsold programmes and lost gate receipts, but added: "It was not going to be a bad crowd at all."

Liles said he and experienced groundsman Brian Cartwright checked the pitch at 10am yesterday and believed it would be okay. However, Wasps chief executive Ann Garvey said Hawks should have called in a local referee to carry out a morning inspection.

"If the weather was like that at York, I would have been asking for an inspection by a local referee by 11am," she explained.

"To the best of my knowledge they did not have a pitch inspection here. They had a look at 10am and felt it would be okay.

"The way I understand it, the players went out to train and felt it was fairly hard, and they called the referees in."

She added: "I'm extremely disappointed for the players because they were all ready for the game, and I'm very disappointed for the supporters who travelled all this way to be told 30 minutes before kick-off that it's off.

"Many of them rang me at home in the morning to ask if the game was on, and I was assuring them that as far as we knew it was."

Garvey said a new date for the match would be fixed in the new year, though it was unlikely that it would be played before February and could even be delayed until after May.

Updated: 12:03 Thursday, December 27, 2001