A right royal rumpus has erupted over York's Golden Jubilee Rugby League Festival after a team from Oxford tried to muscle in on the event!

City of York Council has teamed up with the Rugby Football League and Heworth rugby league club to stage the 16-team, invitation nine-a-side tournament on Monday, June 3.

The event has an English Civil War theme and teams from across the UK, Ireland, France will join a specially-selected York Ironsides team to play for the Fairfax Cup - named after the roundhead commander Lord Fairfax who petitioned King Charles I at Heworth 360 years ago.

But now, in rugby league's very own mini-civil war, Oxford-based Oxford Cavaliers rugby league club has chided the tournament organisers for royally snubbing them!

In a press release issued last week Cavaliers chairman Kath Allison even complains about the Ironsides' planned kit colours - blue, red and white.

Today tournament organiser and former London Broncos supremo Lionel Hurst fired his own salvo at the Cavaliers. He said, "The Cavaliers claim they have some kind of divine right to be involved in this tournament and that the Ironsides will be even wearing the Royalists' colours but this promises to be a very exciting tournament with feast of rugby league fit for a king.

"And, with teams from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, North Wales, Belfast, and Dublin as well as the oldest and newest teams in France and teams from the armed services, there will be plenty of 'needle' on show without inviting the Cavaliers!

"We have tried to get a good geographical spread to the tournament and get a representation for the enthusiasm that our game is generating across a range of cultures and communities.

"It is also important to realise that we are hoping this will not be a one-off event. It is possible that the Cavaliers may be invited to future tournaments but until then they will just have to wait their turn!"

Plans for the event on bank holiday Monday, June 3 are well in hand both in York and within the individual clubs attending the tournament. The competition has secured widespread backing among rugby league circles.

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Notes for Editors The full list of 16 teams is: York Ironsides, Belfast, Cardiff Demons, Cork Bulls, Dublin Blues, Edinburgh Eagles, Glasgow Bulls, Les Hussards de Paris, FC Lezignan, City of London, North Wales Coasters, Royal Air Force, Army, Navy, South Asia Bulls and Teeside Steelers.

The full text of the Oxford Cavaliers press release is as follows: "It is good to see that Rugby League in York is getting a boost from the forthcoming 'York Golden Jubilee Rugby League Festival' on June 3rd for the Fairfax Cup. However of the 16 teams drawn from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France & H.M. Forces, Oxford Cavaliers is not amongst them. WHY!!!! "Our club name was adopted from the period of the English Civil War 1642 - 1646. When Oxford was central to the battle between Charles I Cavaliers and Cromwell and Fairfax's Roundheads. Red and Blue our club colours were those worn by the King's regiments in Oxford. "I understand that the Ironsides team representing the city of York will be playing in Red and Blue .To add insult to injury not only are we not invited but our colours are going to be worn by a team that represents the Roundheads!!! "On 2nd June 1642 - Heworth Moor, York - Sir Thomas Fairfax rode up to Charles I and handed him a petition urging him not to enter into war with Parliament. A memorable day in English History. "I would like to hand a petition to Lionel Hurst urging him to do the honourable thing and to invite the OXFORD CAVALIERS to participate in this tournament to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee and to defend the King's Honour. Surely, it is obvious Ironsides V Oxford Cavaliers should be the first fixture of the day. Only then will the celebrations be truly balanced on this prestigious occasion."