The Tigers submitted their application for Betfred League 1 last week and it was officially announced today that they are one of three clubs left in the running.

Initially there were around ten clubs who had expressed an interest in applying for the spot but we are now down to three.

Fellow East club, Anglian Vipers, are one of the them with Yorkshire men's league club Goole Vikings as the other.

Earlier this year the Rugby Football League announced that they were going to admit a 36th club into their professional ranks as part of a restructure that would see the professional pyramid made up of three tiers of 12.

The Tigers have had designs on joining the professional game for a number of years now and have been working hard to build towards it. In recent years the club has grown to now consist of not only a men's section but also women's, wheelchair and netball as well.

We have also set up a Charity Foundation which is starting to grow steadily as we introduce new projects and branch further into the local and wider community.

This alone will not be enough to sustainably pursue the professional dream and we have invested heavily this year behind the scenes in order to operate to far higher standards than ever before.

This preparation has been well timed with the announcement of from the RFL regarding their desire to expand the professional ranks in 2025.

The next stage of the process is a visit from those running the process to satisfy various criteria requirements before a presentation at the Etihad campus in August.

The successful club will be announced in September.