East Yorkshire has gained its first foothold in the Rugby League Conference with the admittance of Bridlington Bulls to this season's competition.

The summer development league, one of the sport's biggest success stories in recent years, has until now been largely confined to the south of England.

But following a pilot competition last year, five teams from the north east have been accepted.

Bridlington will be joined by Teesside Steelers, Sunderland City, Newcastle and Gateshead Panthers in one of six regional divisions.

A sixth new team, Cardiff Demons, takes the number of clubs in the Conference up to 30.

Bridlington have performed with credit in the Hull and District Amateur League in recent seasons but benefited significantly from a move to summer rugby last year.

They already have a number of junior sides and share excellent facilities with the town's rugby union club.

The new campaign will kick-off on Saturday, May 5, with the regular season finishing on August 4.

That will be followed by the play-offs, regional finals and the Grand Final, which will take place on September 1.

Each side will play 12 regular season fixtures, eight from home and away clashes against sides in their division, plus four cross-conference ties which will match sides of similar ability.

Eight clubs well contest the play-offs, the top six from each division and the two runners-up with the best records.

Two gap weekends have been built into the season to accommodate the increased importance attached to the 'Lionhearts' representative side that will be competing in the Scottish Courage Cup.

The Conference achieved some significant landmarks last season with Cambridge Eagles' Masohiro Komori becoming the first player to gain international honours when he was selected for Japan in the Emerging Nations Championship while Hemel Stags' Simon Tillyer turned professional with Sheffield Eagles.

The brains behind the RLC, Lionel Hurst, recently left his position as chairman to become chief executive of Super League club London Broncos.

Hurst had previously made moves for a York team to be admitted into the competition but those plans did not come to fruition.

Updated: 11:45 Friday, February 09, 2001