YORK Acorn have been drawn to face Hammersmith Hills Hoists in the first round of the Coral Challenge Cup.

The 22 ties across the first round of the competition will take place on the weekend of January 11 and 12 and were drawn at Doncaster’s Bentley ARLFC.

One tie will be selected for live streaming on the BBC, who have again committed to broadcasting a game from every stage of the cup.

Another first round tie will also be streamed on the RFL’s Our League service. Both services have yet to reveal the games which will be shown.

Hammersmith were founded in 2008 and finished second in the Southern Conference League east division last season.

The London club have featured in the first round of the Challenge Cup in each of the past two seasons, losing on both occasions.

The fixture between Acorn and Hammersmith will be the first between the two clubs.

Elsewhere, scrum-half Lewis Brown was the big winner at this year’s York and District Amateur Rugby League awards evening.

Brown was presented with the Colin Nolan Player of the Year award at a well attended evening at South Bank Club.

The individual honour already adds to the pair of personal gongs that Brown claimed at Acorn’s own annual awards night, where he picked up Players’ Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year.

The half-back was a key part of the Acorn side which won promotion back to the Kingstone Press National Conference League premier division after finishing second ahead of Featherstone Lions on points difference.

Brown was presented with the trophy by James Ford, the head coach of York City Knights, where Brown is currently among six players on a one-month trial with the Betfred Championship club.

Acorn were also further honoured at the evening as the club’s fitness coach Stuart Garrington took home the Eurig Thomas Unsung Hero award.

The organisation’s award for Junior Player of the Year went to Acorn’s under-13s loose forward Reece Smith.

The Heworth U17s duo of Alex Hindle and Myles Harrison were also recipients of awards for representing Yorkshire county this season.

Harrison, who is also on trial at the Knights, was named the York and District Rising Star Award winner.

Hindle’s has also recently featured for the England Community Lions U16s east side which played against Australian counterparts New South Wales.

The final award of the evening was the Masters Player of the Year Award, which went to Steve Whattam.

The event’s MC was former York Acorn head coach and BARLA coach Leigh Rientoul and he announced that York’s long-time ARL ambassador Spen Allison, 80, had once again been reappointed as president of BARLA.