The Craven, Aire & Wharfe Junior League are using artificial pitches to try and catch up with their fixture backlog.

They played four matches at Sandylands Sports Centre at Skipton last Sunday and plan to play another four there this weekend if the weather again rules out play on normal grass.

League secretary Mike Breeze also wanted to use Marley last weekend but that option was ruled out because of snow and ice.

The games at Skipton were Keighley Sham-rocks v Otley Town (Under 11 League Cup, Shamrocks won 4-1), Grassington v Idle (Idle won 3-2), Barnoldswick Barons v Kings Park (Under-13 League Cup, Barons won 3-1) and Grassington v Long Lee Rattlers (Under-17 League, Grassington won 10-0).

The quartet of games at Skipton apart, only one fixture was played elsewhere, hosts Burley defeating Silsden B 4-3 in Division 13B. Breeze said: “The league is obviously concerned at the growing backlog of fixtures caused by the run of wet, snow, ice etc.

“We have tried to catch up a bit on the League Cup programme as we are hoping to be offered Bradford City for the finals sometime.

“Thanks to the co-operation of six of our teams who were happy to play on an artificial surface, we managed to get three League Cup ties played on Sunday at Sandylands Sports Centre.

“The League booked and paid for the whole pitch for the day. We plan to have a similar programme on next Sunday just in case weather shuts grounds again. We would have done the same at Marley but were told the pitch was unusable because of the snow/ice.

“The artificial grass is third generation and is very nice to play on but in order to comply with West Riding County FA regulations, both teams must agree to play on it.”

Breeze added: “Olwyn Watson (fixture secretary) still hopes to get all divisions completed by the April 30 deadline but envisages prob-lems with the under-11s and Under-13 Division B unless teams play on Saturday mornings as well as Sundays, and the odd evening game.

“Sunday was certainly a success from the players’ point of view. The kids are getting fed up with no football at weekends and all the games were played in a great spirit.”

The Keybury League are well placed to cope with the backlog. Although league reg-istration secretary Jenni Presland confessed that the league was almost 100 matches behind, she said most sides only had two games to play.

Presland said: “We have had a long Christmas break, which seems to have worked quite well in that we have only lost the week before the break and the week after.

“We have until the end of March to finish the fixtures but some divisions should complete before then.”