THE Evening Press can today reveal the new logo for the York City Knights Rugby League Club.

The colours of the logo - navy blue, sky blue and white - will also be the Knights' official club colours and will be used to the fore in the new home kit, which is currently being designed.

This particular logo, which will be used as the badge on the kit and on all Knights merchandise, was chosen following a competition run in the Press, which gave fans the chance to submit their own logo designs.

The winner of the competition was Garry Beckett, whose design was the most similar to the one adopted by the club, and he will receive as a prize a new home strip. His suggestion was adapted to also incorporate other features as desired by the club.

The logo will be used immediately on promotional packages as the Knights look to bring in more sponsorship.

Chief executive Steve Ferres said: "It's got a good heraldic feel to it and I think it just looks right. We looked at quite a few logos and this one is loosely based on Garry's suggestion and incorporates aspects of other logos so that we've made our own thing."

Ferres said debate among fans plus professional marketing opinion had led to the choice of colours.

"One or two fans called for black and amber (the traditional colours of York RL and latterly York Wasps) but York City Knights is a new club and the consensus was to go for other colours.

"Blue is a primary colour and we're led to believe through market research that it's best to go for primary colours when selling kits. We're going by everything we've been told.

"We've got three main colours - navy blue, sky blue and white - and it gives us options to go either of the three ways. No other team has got the three colours together so our kit will be a bit different to everyone else's."

He added: "It's not easy to make decisions regarding logos and colours because whatever you go for won't be what everyone wanted, but these decisions have to be made."

Knights have added Darren Callaghan to their ranks for the 2003 season after the former Sheffield Eagles hooker-cum-half-back agreed a one-year deal last night.

Callaghan, who also played for York Acorn as a youth, joins Mark Cain in returning to his home town to play professional rugby league.

Ferres said: "We are happy to get Darren in the bag. He is another local lad who has the desire to play for his home town team.

"It is a new start for us and Darren and Mark (Cain) can see that, which is a credit to them."

Knights' offices at Huntington Stadium were today officially up and running. All club inquiries should now go through these offices, which will be manned full-time by football secretary Leanne Cooper. The phone number is 01904 656105.

Updated: 11:23 Tuesday, October 22, 2002