Candy League Division 1

PERCY PARK LIONS 13 – 7 BILLINGHAM LIONS

Percy Park Lions made it 3 wins in a row as they avenged an early season defeat away at Billingham. Park’s 2^nd XV had the opportunity to play in front of a larger than normal crowd, as the 1^st XV game was called off by Ilkley as they felt the pitch was frozen in places and too dangerous; (the game has been rescheduled for 24^th January 2015). Both 2^nd XV’s warmed up on the pitch and decided that the conditions were fine.

Percy Park opened the scoring with a penalty, kicked by Paul Spowart in an evenly matched contest. Surprisingly Billingham had the upper hand in the scrummages with a much larger front row, but they weren’t their usual threat in the back division, with several unforced errors accounting for a somewhat stop start game.

A fine individual try by fly half Phil Morse took Park further ahead and with the conversion the lead was 10 – 0. A further Spowart penalty gave the home side a 13 – 0 half time lead.

Several changes in the second period saw both Morse and Spowart replaced, leaving Park without a goal kicker so a couple of kickable penalty chances were spurned.

Billingham hit back with a converted try mid way through the second half, but Park held out for a narrow win and Billingham travelled back down the A19 with a losing bonus point.

Friday the 24th of July saw Percy Park RFC host the first Friday Night Lights 7s tournament. Eight local teams entered for a night of sevens, Seaham, Westoe, Ashington, North Shields A and B, Mighty Peth, Percy Park Sharks and a Percy Park Acadmey team from 2011.

The eight teams were split into two groups of four; Group A, had the luxury of playing on the first team pitch and in front of a good gathering of supporters. It consisted of the two Percy Park teams, North Shields A and Seaham RFC.

Westoe, North Shields B, Ashington and Mighty Peth made up Group B. The night saw some good running sevens with the dry, warm night doing its part in making for an entertaining night of rugby; it was evident from the start that there was a contrast in styles from team to team, some teams choosing to stick to the 15 a side style while others adapted to the free flowing 7s style of keeping the ball alive. 

Group A saw Percy Park Sharks dominate the pool with three easy wins to send them through to the cup semi-finals as top seeds, Percy Park Academy 2011 battled hard after their opening loss to the Sharks to claim victories over North Shields A and Seaham to go through as second seeds. North Shields A, were too good against a hard running Seaham team to go through as top seeds for the Plate semi-finals.

With a mixed start to the 2015 7s season, Percy Park Sharks face their sternest test as they enter the Stay Strong Stu 7s tournament at Tynedale RFC. With the likes of Tynedale, Blaydon, Might Peth and don't try for me Argentina entering this year’s competition, the Sharks know they will have their work cut out. Luckily the Sharks name their strongest squad so far this season...

With the season coming to a close and the sun starting to shine it can only mean one thing! The sevens season is about to start, and for the second season running Percy Park will have a senior sevens team running throughout the summer.

Percy Park Sharks are entering only their second season and after last year’s impressive season all eyes will be on them to repeat their success. The Sharks are made up of players from all four of Percy Park’s senior teams along with a handful of academy players plus invited players from other local North East clubs.

This season the Sharks start once again with the North East's most popular tournament the Morpeth 7s, formally known as Longhirst 7s. With elite teams including the famous north east sevens team The Wailers the Sharks will have to hit the ground running. The squad for the Morpeth 7s is as follows: