Lindsay chairman of Super League

Rugby League

Rugby League

DAVE HADFIELD

Maurice Lindsay, the chief executive of the , has been elected as the first chairman of the Super League International Board.

Lindsay was named as the inaugural holder of a highly influential office at the meeting at which the new board was formed in Sydney this weekend.

The former Wigan chairman, chief executive of the game in Britain for three years, was widely tipped to take on the new role. The only individual of comparable stature, the Australian John Ribot, is Super League's first chief executive officer.

Lindsay, who will also be the British delegate, will retain his role as chief executive of the British game, although the two functions will clearly overlap to a large extent. "I am absolutely thrilled and delighted with the appointment," Lindsay said.

"Having spent a lifetime in the game and been so heavily involved in international rugby league for so many years, I am very excited. John and I share the same values and belief that our game has been world sport's best kept secret for far too long."

The formation of the new board pushes the Australian , with which Super League in Australia is locked in a legal battle, further into isolation. Among the functions of the new body will be controlling the laws of the game, including deciding whether the changes being tried in Britain will be adopted by Super League-aligned nations worldwide.

The Pennine League side, West Bowling, who produced the shock of the second round of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup on Saturday by beating one of the leading amateur clubs, Wigan St Patricks, have been rewarded with a trip to Carlisle in the third round. The round, the first stage at which Second Division professional clubs enter the competition, features one all-professional tie, with Doncaster going to Barrow.

West Hull, who beat Blackpool Gladiators in the second round, have every chance of making it through to the next round, in which the big guns make their first appearances. They have been drawn to play at Highfield, the bottom club in the Second Division.