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Old club will see 'new Bev'

Liam Chronnell
6/ 2/2003

EVERYTHING is set for a terrific cup tie as Karl Harrison takes his Salford City Reds to Barrow for a place in the lucrative fifth round of the Powergen Challenge Cup.

After seeing off Toulouse in the third round at The Willows two weeks ago the Reds have been without match practice.

They had hoped to take on Gateshead Thunder in an Arriva Trains Cup group match in the North East on Sunday, but the clash was postponed, and no new date has been fixed yet.

Among those who are looking forward to this Sunday's trip to Craven Park is Kiwi centre Cliff Beverley, who with Salford team-mate Radney Bowker will be making a quick return to Cumbria. Both played for Barrow Border Raiders last season.

Beverley, who is enjoying the full-time game with Salford, said he is also enjoying being part of a big influx of players who are still getting to know each other's abilities and strengths.

"I had a similar experience when I first played for Auckland Warriors," said the affable New Zealande, who promises that Barrow fans will see a different Cliff Beverley.

"Because we are full-time at Salford, training under Karl is more structural and we have to communicate more than we had to as part-timers," he explained. "We've scored a lot of points this year but we are all working on the combination of the team - we have got to gell."

The visit of Salford's big guns would obviously have been a good crowd-puller for Gateshead's minnows, so it was a good pay day lost.

Gateshead Thunder chairman Michael Jeffels told the Scarlet Turkey website that the club "had no choice nor voice in the matter". He went on: "As we are tenants and not landlords, the decision to postpone the match was forced upon us. The stadium owners felt they may get one game out of it on the Saturday, but were reluctant to even consider the next day. We paid for programmes and corporate food and lost out on a bit of money we would not get in a midweek game."

• Reds players Chris Charles, David Highton and Neil Baynes will be at the next Forever Reds meeting in the Riley Suite at The Willows on Monday, February 10. The meeting starts at 7.30pm but fans are asked to get there early.