West Wales Raiders have resigned from the Betfred Championship One competition with immediate effect. With the fixtures having already been published, West Wales due to start wth a home game against Oldham on the 19th February, this announcement has plunged the league into some confusion and reduced the number of home games for already sold season tickets and hospitality packages.
The league will now comprise ten sides, and already included bye rounds, but now with the late withdrawal it is possible that some sides may face two consecutive weeks without a game. It´s a sad day for the game as we lose a side who have been part of the competition for the last seven years.
Full club statement below.
CLUB STATEMENT
It’s with great sadness that we have to write this but the West Wales Raiders will not be competing within the RFL professional league in the 2023 season.
The club informed the RFL on Wednesday that they will not be taking part in either competition this season.
After 5 seasons within the professional ranks both Andrew & Peter felt it was the right time to give someone else an opportunity to try and take the club on within the sport. Numerous parties have shown interest but most have fallen once they realised how much personal finances and time is needed to run a club within league 1.
The Raiders began back in 2015 and had 2 seasons in the amateur leagues before entering league 1 in 2018, since then there has been a lot of ups and downs. The club has had great pleasure to have been involved with the professional ranks for the past 5 seasons and felt, regardless of results, that we kept up with many of the larger teams with our ‘off the pitch’ work.
The owners will continue to support the RFL & WRL to try and find a new group to keep a professional club within Wales especially after all the great work being done within the community by WRL over the past 12 months.
Part owner Peter Tiffin added “It’s taken us both (Peter & Andrew) a long time to come to this decision, it’s been a difficult one to make as we have grown the club from an amateur club back in Mynydd y Garreg to playing against the likes of Bradford Bulls and Widnes at Stebonheath Park. Raiders was something that we both were proud to say we created from scratch, there has been so many highlights that it would be hard just to state a few. I want to thank every single person who has been involved with the club from day 1 to now as without you the club could have never been able to continue. The players, staff, sponsors, directors, supporters, volunteers and many others who have been involved, I want to thank you all for every single effort you have shown to the club and I hope you continue within the game and support WRL with their efforts on the future of the sport within Wales. Myself and Andrew will continue to support both RFL & WRL and endeavour to try and find a new group to keep a club within the professional ranks from Wales.”
