Featherstone’s long and quiet Sundays in a rugby league town that lost its soul

Club’s financial crisis meant exclusion from the RFL Championship this season, and it could be a long way back for one of the sport’s storied names

Sunday afternoon in Featherstone. The first shoots of spring are creaking through the skyline and the Railway pub is bustling with rugby league supporters as the town’s pride and joy, Featherstone Rovers, prepare to face Swinton Lions.

Or at least, that is what should have happened last weekend. Instead, streets of this West Yorkshire town built on coal mining were deserted. The Railway, just a few hundred yards from Rovers’ Post Office Road home, was largely empty and the gates of the stadium chained shut.