Heworth ARLC are confident they will again win re-election to the National Conference League.

The Villagers finished second bottom of division two of the flagship amateur league and thus need to go through the process for the second successive year of reapplying for league membership, with the formal application due to be sent in by the end of this week.

The club may have to wait until the league's annual general meeting next month to be told if that application is successful, but club spokesman Ken Sykes believes they should have no problems.

"I'm pretty confident," he said. "We know we're going through a difficult time with the first team's results but we're optimistic for the future."

Two clubs from outside the league - Egremont and Stanley Rangers - have applied for membership and will come up against the league's bottom two, Heworth and Huddersfield Sharks, in the ballot. However, there is already a vacancy in the league as division one has been running with 13 rather than 14 teams, so the chances are league chiefs will elect three out of the four teams. And Sykes reckoned founder members Heworth should be okay.

He said: "I would be quite surprised if they kicked us out, although we won't be too complacent about it.

"We've got some good youth players coming through and two open age sides - some clubs higher up the league haven't got a second team although it is a requirement - while our facilities are better than most clubs'. Membership is not just about where you finish in the league."

On that note, he said the side competed well enough to merit inclusion. "That bottom-of-the-table situation was actually quite exciting in its own right as it came down to the last week of the season to see who would finish in the re-election zone.

"We could have got out of it and there were other clubs in the melting pot. I wish it was up at the other end of the table, of course, but it was interesting in its own way and competitive in that sense."

Heworth will hold their end-of-season presentation night for their open age teams at their Elmpark Way clubhouse on Friday, from 7.30pm. First and second team awards will be presented.

Updated: 11:22 Thursday, May 12, 2005