Percy Park Panthers: The Beginning

The growth of ‘woman and girls’ Rugby at Percy Park RFC has always been a slow burner. There has been many attempts over the years including one valiant effort from former member Steve Coombe. Alas it was never meant to be and Percy Park found their girls migrating to other sides as they entered ‘junior’ rugby, notably at Morpeth and Tynedale where they continued to enjoy their chosen sport. Amongst that number Sarah Foster and Orla McCallion had successful careers (and they are still playing) reaching the pinnacle of the Woman’s game with Loughborough Lightening, Harrogate, Darlington Mowden Park and Leeds Rhinos.

In 2018 Anna Golighty found herself on the sidelines of Percy Park RFC watching her son Ben play within the Under 7 age group. Anna fell in love with the game and began searching around for a place to give rugby ago. Realising that Percy Park did not have a female rugby section, Anna took herself along to the very successful Novocastrians set up. As a novice she found the Novocastrian girls were streets ahead and considered that there had to be another way for woman like herself to learn and play the game.

Having shared her thoughts with her partner, and Percy Park member Bill Dryden, they set off on a path to create a Woman’s section at their chosen club. Supported by Percy Park and the RFU, Anna became engaged within the Inner Warrior programme and with a number of ladies decided to give a session a try.

Friendly

Blaydon Kites 34 v Percy Park Panthers 25

Park go close as Bulldozer and Gicquel notch two each.

Friday evening saw the Percy Park Panthers travel to Blaydon RFC to face a strong Blaydon Kites side on the AGP (Artificial Grass Pitch) at Crowtrees.

An inexperienced Blaydon front row meant the game was played with uncontested scrums which was to eventually tip the balance in the Kite’s favour as the superiority of the much stronger Percy Park forwards was negated.

To add insult to injury the Panthers suffered 3 late cry offs from their back line due to illness and injury and took to the field with a hastily reorganised team of 14.

Things looked bleak 30 seconds after the kick off when the strong Kites backline carved straight through the Panthers and Leah Greenwell scored under the posts and Jo Marley added the conversion to go 7-0 up.

To their credit however the Panthers immediately grasped the need to fill the field and the Kites realised that the Panthers were not going to lie down. A series of strong forward drives, with some excellent offloading, led to 2 unanswered tries from prop Steph Gicquel and lock Shonie Sansom to give the Panthers a 10-7 lead.

The Blaydon’s backs found their way through the Panthers patched up back line on two occasions before halftime courtesy of a second try from Leah Greenwell and another from Georgia Gainford. Percy Park faced a 17 -10 deficit at the interval.

The Panthers renewed their forward effort in the second half battering the Blaydon pack with some powerful running and excellent offloading. Steph Gicquel scored her second with a 30 yard sprint to the line after breaking 2 tackles to haul the Panthers back to 17 -15.

Woman and Girls Rugby

Percy Park Panthers 5 Blaydon Kites 15

Denley makes Percy Park history

A little bit of Percy Park history was made under floodlights on Friday 10 September as Percy Park RFC hosted Blaydon RFC in our first ever Woman’s competitive senior 15 a side game. And by all accounts it was a cracker.

Percy Park were led by Captain Anna Golightly as she proudly brought The Panthers side onto the hollowed turf of Preston Avenue.

For the majority of the Panthers this was their first ever contact game and whilst going down 5-15 to a strong Blaydon Kites side they came away with enormous credit.

This was a fiercely contested game with neither side taking a backwards step and the defence play of both sides were particularly well organised.

150 Year of Celebration Sevens

That was a Blast

Due to popular request the author has been asked to place some photographs to record the day....it was a blast and really does not need any words to recount the sucess that it undoubtedly was...so a few photos ...however I must start with the raffle winners.

Nicky Jenkins, Catherine 'Cathy' Little, George Rutter and Ken Fairbairn. 

To the lucky winners please contact Percy Park RFC ...your prizes are in the First Aid Room.