Birmingham and Solihull Bees set for league and cup double header with Doncaster Knights

Jan 4 2011 by Brian Dick, Birmingham Mail

BEES have confirmed this weekend’s clash with Doncaster Knights will be a double-header, league and cup match.

Even though foregoing separate Championship and British & Irish fixtures means the Damson Park outfit miss out on gate returns and game time for their fringe players, Russell Earnshaw admits his side has no option but to try to reduce their workload.

“We have got three games to catch up and Donny are in a similar position and with a part-time squad you just cannot consider playing Saturday-Wednesday for very long,” he said.

“Having played on Saturday I feel horrible today and would have dreaded having to play again on Wednesday. Playing a double-header makes no difference really.

‘‘In fact, if there are league points at stake you could argue it will be a better fixture than the British & Irish one might have been.”

What is clear, though, is that Bees have been hard hit by the bad weather.

Not only have they had to postpone matches with Doncaster, Rotherham and Pontypridd, they have played at home just once since mid-November.

One positive, though, is the return to fitness of forwards Matt Long and Ross Noonan, as well as Earnshaw himself.

And Mark Hopley and Ben Barkley are both back in training but Rob Dugard will be out for a couple of weeks.