YORK’s leading amateur rugby league club, York Acorn, will play summer rugby from next year onwards after the Hatton’s Solicitors National Conference League voted to move to a summer season from March 2012.

Neighbours Heworth voted against the historic switch but could still join them in the summer season should they now accept an invitation to make the move.

A meeting of the 38 NCL clubs ended in a vote of 28-10 in favour of accepting the Rugby Football League’s invitation to operate the third tier – below the professional Super League and Championships – of the new summer structure, under licence.

The NCL, formed in 1986 and now comprising three divisions, is the highest echelon of amateur rugby league and, in a momentous move for the sport, will become the first winter amateur league to make the switch. The professional game switched to summer in 1996.

Its management committee will now formulate a short winter season from September to early November, before the start of the 2012 campaign on the first weekend of March.

“The vote was to accept the licence offer of the RFL,” said NCL chairman Trevor Hunt. “Now those clubs who voted against the switch can reassess and decide whether they want to be part of this exciting new challenge or remain in winter.”

Hunt added: “I know a number of clubs voted against the motion because they had specific ground or scheduling issues but we will work with them and the RFL to iron out those difficulties in the hope they can then feel comfortable in making the switch to the new season format.

“We want all the present clubs to move as one and I will be speaking to them all to see how we can best achieve that goal. But we will fully respect the wishes of any club that feels their interests are best served by remaining in a winter competition.

“It was a momentous meeting not only for the NCL, but the sport of rugby league in general.

“However this is not the end of the process, but merely the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the NCL’s history and that of rugby league.”

No-one from Acorn, who are set for relegation from the premier division of the NCL, was available to say which way they voted, but it is thought many at the club were generally in favour of making the switch.

Heworth spokesman Ken Sykes said the Villagers, currently bottom of division two, voted against the move as there were “a lot of things still to resolve”, but he added: “The fact we voted ‘no’ does not mean we won’t be in there.”

Heworth’s other options would be to move to the Yorkshire League or Pennine League, which will keep a winter season.

Sykes added: “I think we need more consultation. The feelings around the club are mixed. Some people are for the switch, some against it, some don’t know and some are in the middle.

“I personally was not expecting this to happen so quickly. There are a lot of issues still to sort through. All 38 clubs will now be invited to be part of the new structure and we will decide whether to go with it.”