"IT'S a fantastic derby to begin with."

So says York Lokomotive chairman Simon Moat as his side kick off their Yorkshire Men's League amateur rugby league summer season against cross-city rivals Heworth.

The clash comes in the Forty20 Cup - the annual curtain-raising competition in the YML calendar - and, while it is in many respects a warm-up match for the league campaign that follows, especially with neither side having had a friendly, it could well be a pointer to how both will get on in 2016.

Bragging rights are also at stake as the pair vie to come out of the shadow of National Conference League neighbours York Acorn.

Heworth, with their tradition as former Conference big guns and as a YML division one side, should start as favourites against their division two visitors, but both teams are predicting a hard-fought encounter.

"It's a fantastic game to start with - if the players don't get excited for this one there's something wrong," said Moat.

"We're quietly confident. Speaking to (new coaches) Dean Thomas and Mick Hagan, they're pleased with how the boys have come together in training.

"They've introduced new structures and if the lads stick to them we should hold our own."

A Heworth-Lokos derby would not have seemed likely a few years ago but the Villagers' fall from the Conference 11 months ago, coupled with the Lokos' steady rise from expansion club beginnings nine years ago, see them now lock horns.

Moat, whose first team are targeting a top-two finish in division two, said: "Matches like this help to put York Lokos as a club on the map.

"There's local pride at stake. We know where we want to be and claiming victory over Heworth would be another step forward.

"From an open-age perspective, the club has made steady progress. As a club as a whole, with our junior and masters section, we are growing."

Like the Lokos, Heworth have a new head coach this term in former York City Knights winger, Leeds Rhinos academy starlet and dual-code junior international George Elliot, who is still only 24.

They have long-term goals of returning to the Conference but, says spokesman Ken Sykes, it will be a step-by-step process. This game could be a pointer as to where they are at.

"We want to look forward two, three, four years and get ourselves back to a level we were at previously," said Sykes.

"It will be small steps - we're not expecting to immediately rise through the ranks.

"If we're successful in division one this year - and we're hoping to be - then the obvious would be to get into the premier division and see where we go from there."

Of Saturday's opener - against a Lokos side who rose out of the ashes of the old York Groves club, who in turn had strong links with the even older Punch Bowl team - Sykes said: "I imagine it will be competitive. Lokos have done pretty well in the last few years.

"We used to have some cracking games against Punch Bowl all those years ago and I suspect Saturday won't be too different."

Heworth were to have a pitch inspection after recent waterlogging, so the game might be switched to the Lokos' Knavesmire base.

The Villagers, meanwhile, also face a Forty20 Cup derby next week against Acorn 'A', whose quest to reach a third straight final begins this Saturday at Skirlaugh 'A'.

Acorn first team's NCL premier division campaign kicks off next week.