{"id":361632,"date":"2026-01-09T22:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361632\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:04:14","slug":"challenge-cup-chaos-as-three-games-called-off-amid-further-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361632\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Cup chaos as three games called off amid further uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Challenge\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Three Challenge Cup fixtures have already been postponed ahead of what could be a severely disrupted weekend in rugby league.<\/p>\n

With Storm Goretti gripping the country this weekend, more freezing temperatures and snow is forecast nationwide. As such, the country is braced for what could be a challenging few days amid rail delays, flooding and power cuts.<\/p>\n

However, the weather looks set to have a big say on the weekend\u2019s offering of rugby league, with the first round of the Challenge Cup already being impacted. That\u2019s because three games have already been cancelled and one is currently rated as 50\/50 with a call to be made on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

The BBC made the decision to switch tomorrow\u2019s live broadcast from Rochdale Mayfield\u2019s clash with Ince Rose Bridge to Thatto Heath Crusaders against Seaton Rangers. That was due to a frozen pitch and that game has now been officially postponed.<\/p>\n

King Cross Park have pushed their game with West Hull back a week in the hope that January 17 might provide more favourable conditions, while Telford Raiders have called off their tie with London Chargers.<\/p>\n

The game that\u2019s still in the balance is in York with Heworth due to take on the RAF. It\u2019s fair to assume that as Saturday arrives more games will be impacted, though, which will certainly serve to complicate Monday afternoon\u2019s third round Challenge Cup draw.<\/p>\n

So far, we have seen two pre-season friendlies called off, too, with Castleford Tigers and Batley Bulldogs making early calls to cancel their games with Oldham and Sheffield Eagles respectively. A frozen pitch was cited by both Castleford and Oldham.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three Challenge Cup fixtures have already been postponed ahead of what could be a severely disrupted weekend in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-361632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}