WEATHER permitting, Bradford & Bingley have a rare chance to reach a cup final tomorrow.

They face North One East rivals Moortown away in a semi-final of the Yorkshire Shield.

Prior to that, the Bees have been runners-up to West Leeds in the Shield final at West Park Bramhope in 2016 and, most memorably, beat Gloucester Old Boys 46-18 to win the Powergen Intermediate Cup at Twickenham in 2004.

As Moortown are fourth in North One East and the Bees ninth, the hosts must be considered favourites as they beat their visitors as recently as last month at Moss Valley.

Moortown triumphed 27-17 that day but Bradford & Bingley, with a much-changed team and obviously on a much drier pitch, thrashed their Leeds opponents 54-7 at Wagon Lane in September.

Preparation was interrupted for the Bees on Tuesday as they spent the evening clearing up after Storm Dennis, which again flooded the car park at Wagon Lane and the indoor cricket nets just a week after Storm Ciara had done much worse damage to their clubhouse and changing rooms.

However, Bees coach Hugh Gumbs says that there has been a silver lining in the gloom and he thanked Keighley for the availability of their Rugby365 pitch for training.

Should the bad weather continue as it seems it will, there is the possibility of the Bees using Rose Cottage for a Friday night league match in the near future to avoid a fixture backlog.

In an honest appraisal of his club, Gumbs said: "Rugby has moved on in the last few years but Bingley doesn't seem to have moved on with it.

"Anthony Posa (former head coach) and myself put things in place last season but since then I have had to pull things back and simplify things and it is a learning process that isn't going to happen in one season.

"We are very very inconsistent, very up and down as a team but the teams in this league are very close in standard, which is exciting and what you want it to be.

"If we had won at Driffield last Saturday we could have been fifth but the line-out is working better now that we have a dedicated thrower in Luke Spaulls from Ilkley.

"In the past we might have got our cheque book out but now it is a matter of developing our own players or giving opportunities to players who aren't getting a chance at other clubs, and our players are developing."

As for tomorrow, Gumbs will be without Ali Macdonald (injured) and Ryan Wederell (unavailable) but back come Sam White, Roger Raper and tight-head Will Booth, who has rejoined from Hull Ionians, to boost the front row.

The winners of this tie will play either Bridlington, winners at Bradford Salem last Saturday, or Malton & Norton, who knocked Salem out in the Shield semi-finals.

The other semi-final will be played on either April 11 or 25 at Dukes Park, Bridlington as Malton & Norton have a re-arranged North One East league match at Morley tomorrow.