Barrow Raiders and Workington Town, both promoted from League One, will start their return to the Championship with home games on Sunday, January 30.
Barrow open-up with a home clash with Sheffield Eagles while Workington Town will host Newcastle Thunders at Newcastle Thunder.
It’s an intriguing opening fixture for Town as they have just announced the signing of two Newcastle players in Evan Simons and Alex Clegg, and already have a strong north east contingent working under Geordie coach Chris Thorman.
Whitehaven will actually have the honour of starting the season on Saturday January 29 when the visit Leigh Centurions, likely to be one of the favourites to win the Championship following their relegation from Super League.
York’s LNER Community Stadium will be the venue for the first Monday night game on January 31, as Brian McDermott’s first match as the Rovers head coach will be a tough trip to James Ford’s City Knights in a repeat of this year’s AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Final.
Seven days later, the cameras move to Featherstone’s Millennium Stadium for the visit of Leigh Centurions, another of the clubs favoured to challenge for promotion following their relegation from the Betfred Super League in 2021.
Each club’s first home game in the Betfred Championship and League 1 competitions have been announced this afternoon, ahead of the release of the full fixtures list tomorrow at 3pm.
Whitehaven’s first home game on February 6 is a belter – they host neighbours Barrow in the first Cumbrian derby of the season.
