Yorkshire cricket legend Brian Close, British Lions and Great Britain rugby league favourite John Bentley and rugby union chief Peter Wheeler will all join York City's new boss John Batchelor on BBC Radio Five Live's Any Sporting Questions? programme in York next week..

A final guest is to be unveiled later this week but the popular programme will go out live (8pm to 9.30pm) from Acorn rugby league club in Acomb next Tuesday evening (May 21). The ASQ? Team has been lured to York for the first time by City of York Council as part of the York Golden Jubilee Rugby League Festival.

Free tickets for the programme, hosted by presenter Nick Mullins and the first in a new series, are available by visiting the Five Live website (www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive), clicking on the ASQ? page and completing the e-mail ticket application form or by calling 08700 100500 and select option '0'.

The Radio Five Live programme has been invited to York as part of a programme of pre-festival appetisers for the rugby league tournament at Heworth rugby league club on bank holiday Monday, June 3.

Peter Wheeler is a former England and British and Irish Lions rugby union hooker and is now chief executive of Leicester Tigers. Brian Close is a former Yorkshire and England all-rounder. Former Halifax Blue Sox back John Bentley made the switch into rugby union and starred in the British and Irish Lions' series victory over South Africa in 1997.

The rugby league festival is being held to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee and will bring teams from the rest of the UK, Ireland and France to York.

Both Acorn and Heworth clubs are providing players for the unique York Ironsides squad - an invitation team which will provide the local interest in the tournament.

Any Sporting Questions? features a celebrity sporting panel taking questions from the audience on the latest sporting issues. Radio Five Live is on 909 and 693 AM and has an audience of 6.25 million.

Jubilee tournament organiser and former London Broncos supremo Lionel Hurst said, "This will be a wonderful warm-up for the rugby league festival with plenty of Yorkshire interest and, I'm sure, a lot of topical sporting issues up for discussion."

Next month's rugby nines event has an English Civil War theme and 15 teams will join the Ironsides to play for the Fairfax Cup. The York Ironsides are named in honour of the city's history in support of Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead forces during the English Civil War.

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