Is it possible to have two instances of the same group (from the same news server)?

[N. Jackson]

I would like to somehow duplicate a news group so that I have two
instances of it. That is, I want it to appear twice in the Group Buffer
and for the two instances of it to behave independently. Is there a way
to do this?

I realise that I could do this by subscribing to the group from two
different news servers, but this particular group is only on one
server, as far as I know.

The scenario is that I have just subscribed to a group and I want to
catch it up to the beginning of this month and thereafter read messages
as they come in. (That part is pretty standard, I guess.)

But I also eventually want to read all 60 000-odd messages
posted to the group since 2002, so I want another "copy" of the group
that isn't caught up that I can gradually read forward in time.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to do this?

Thanks.