To achieve this we’ve sent our intrepid investigative journalists out and about to try and dig out as many interesting items as we can. We await any management contribution so we will do our best in its absence.

Items will be added to this page on a regular basis so do keep coming back.

If any member has any items they’d like adding please e-mail me with the details. wecousin@tynedale rfc.co.uk

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Will Nankivell and Nicole were married on Saturday August 24th.

Kevin Angus Marshall - August 2024 died peacefully after a long illness, aged 56. Kevin was a mobile, aggressive prop who represented the 1stxV and 2nd XV in the late 1980's.

GENERAL
Santa calls in at party - 22 Dec 2024
Santa found time to visit Tynedale Rugby Club when he called in at the annual Mini Section Christmas Party much to the delight of many.
CLICK HERE to view more photos

Clubman of the Week
For the past couple of seasons our Director of Rugby, Peter Southern, and his “committee” have selected a Clubman of the Week from nominations received from players and support staff.
This week winner is Jamie Hiles whilst previous winners this season have included

Andrew Neal
Josh Schollick
Ethan Way
Chris Wearmouth
Group of senior coaches
Sam Harrison
David Batey

This weeks award citation from Peter:-
“Well done to all yesterday, especially the Centurions for winning against a 1stXV.
Some great nominations again this week but as usual there has to be a winner.

This week’s clubman is building a reputation for being Mr Versatile. Last week, he was out of position, playing at 12 for the Hadrians. After an impressive game, he was picked in the backrow for the Raiders but that wasn’t for long. After an unfortunate incident in the 1s warm up, the Raiders found themselves without a prop. With the prospect of going to uncontested scrums, this clubman was straight in at prop, a position he hadn’t played since Junior rugby. Not only did he fill this position, he thrived against a much older experienced opponent.
This just typifies this clubman and the culture around the club created by lads like this.

This clubman is improving week by week on the field and is an example of what a fantastic bunch of young players we have in the club who are performing on the pitch and also creating a great environment off the pitch too.

Let’s celebrate this clubman in the very last one of 2024 - JAMIE HILES
”

Our President
We are not too sure of the story behind the photo (below) which has fallen into our hands but we do know it features our shy, retiring president, Neil Foster, and his wife Lisa.
We suspect that the man with the dyed 'black' hair is Elvis Presley,

That one bloody Crow – November 2024
Five home 1stXV league matches and no victories – two draws and three defeats. IS THIS BAD LUCK?
Senior club member and consultant ornithologist Douglas Hamilton believes (along with many others we’re sure) that a single Carrion Crow may be playing a big part in our disappointing run of home results.
We will all have noticed before kick off at our home matches a single Carrion Crow standing atop the goalposts on the main pitch. Only one!
Douglas believes this is a clear omen – a harbinger of doom.
We believe our Director of Rugby, Peter Southern, is leaving no stone unturned in our quest for an elusive home victory and has a plan in place to either discourage the single crow or attract a mate!

TV Donation - November 2024
The Club are extremely grateful to have received the donation of a ‘very’ smart 75” TV from the Foundation Engineering Company Roger Bullivant Ltd.
Credit must go to long-standing club member Philip (Pip) Howard for organising this donation.
The TV has already been put to good use within the clubhouse.

Joe Marler at Tynedale
95-capped Joe Marler's recent retirement from rugby justifiably brought a mass of media coverage after a long successful and, at times, controversial career.
What many Tynedale people may not know is that Joe, as a young 19-year-old, played at Tynedale Park on Saturday 17th October 2009 when he turned out for Esher in National League One - at the time he was a Harlequins dual-registered player.
In the match, in which both sides scored 5 tries, Esher went on to win 42-27 with Joe scoring one try from a 40-metre dash. Esher went on to win the league with Tynedale finishing 5th.
Among other well known internationals who have turned out against Tynedale is Maro Itoje who played for Old Albanian whilst on Saracens's books.

CLUB MEMBERS
Tim Tatman
Tynedale staLwart Tim Tatman suffered a heart attack on Monday 18th November whilst out walking with 'The Monday Night Walkers' at Blanchland.
Fortunately Tim's companions guessed what was happening and took him to Hexham General Hospital who forwarded him on to the Freeman.
After first rate care by the NHS including two stents Tim was back home on the Friday.
The post-op care is: pills, exercise and care with the diet.
Tim wishes to acknowledge the brilliant attention from the NHS.
Tim intends attending this Saturday's lunch and match at home to Hull.
We all wish Tim a full and speeds recovery.

David Tindle
Tynedale Rugby Club members will be sorry to have noted the absence of two of the club’s most dedicated spectators, David Tindle and his wife Pam, at this season’s 1St XV matches.
The couple have hardly missed a home match in recent years - sitting at the east end of the stand, two rows in front of Tynedale’s cognoscenti in the back row. There they exchanged banter and commented on some of the referees’ decisions (often in a much more thoughtful way than the ‘experts’ behind them.)
David suffered a stroke at the end of May whilst watching a televised rugby match and spent 22 weeks in hospital before returning home at the end of October.
Whilst David is now delighted to be home, he still has some way to go.
David and Pam have been sorely missed. We would all wish him well in his battle to recuperate, and look forward to seeing them both back at the club before too long.

MEMBERSHIP
Membership Update - November 27th 2024
We currently have 582 paid-up members/subscribers. Last season we finished up with 651 paid-up members/subscribers so we still have a fair way to go.
BE PART OF OUR GREAT CLUB - BECOME A MEMBER!

Membership Help/Support
Follow this LINK for membership advice.
Becky Stewart is our new Adult Membership Secretary. For any membership support/queries please e-mail Becky :- becky.stewart@tynedale.rfc.co.uk
.

PRE-MATCH LUNCHES
Reminder, if you would like to book a pre-match lunch for any of the home games this season click on the booking page here: https://events.liveit.io/ian-tynedale/tynedale-rfc-pre-match-lunch-booking-202425-4/

STAFFING
(30 April 2024) Peter Simpson has retired from his Head Groundsman position after 6 and a half years excellent service and Craig Johnston has been appointed as Peter’s replacement. Craig will be looking to combine his new responsibilities with his roles of Bar 1876 Manager and the Club’s Senior Rugby Fixture Secretary as well as his role at Tynedale Cricket Club.

Our Clubhouse Cleaner, Jane, who has provided sterling service for many years has retired. The cleaning responsibilities have now been passed to a small local business.

CLUBHOUSE & CHANGING ROOMS
Upgrade to social areas
Work started week commencing 22nd July 2024 on alterations to the clubhouse. The work included replacement of the clubhouse brick dividing wall by removable screens, the bricking up of one door. It is hoped that by removing the brick wall the clubhouse will be more suitable for larger social events.
The work was was carried out by local company "Armel Ltd".
It was also hoped to re-position the bar serving area to allow additional kitchen access to the west side of the bar but logistical and co-ordination issues meant it has been delayed until next off-season.

The internal lighting in the clubhouse has been updated.
The ceiling will be painted in February 2025 with a view to offering a lighter/warmer feel to the place.

Players' Toilets and Showers - December 2024
As part of the RWC 2025 Impact Programme, we were awarded a grant of £50,000 to upgrade the showers and toilets.
The first phase of this, the creation of toilets from the old baths, is nearly complete after encountering a few complications. They will be in use in January.
Work will then refurbish the original referee's room which will include the installation of toilets.
The refurbishment of the showers will take place at the end of the season.

Once the new toilets are opened, we will close the access from the changing rooms to the existing toilets.

Other clubhouse changes being floated around the rumour mill include:-

Outside covered decking area adjoining east side of current function room.
Outside patio area to west of function room with new external door on west side of lounge as access.

Floor Painted - August 2024
Chris Lynch has painted the 1stXV changing room floor with some special non-slip paint - it does help to tidy the place up.

GROUND
Floodlights - December 2024
As part of a review of our energy usage, we identified reductions in both our carbon footprint and costs by changing our floodlights on the Dyvels pitch to LED.
We have been successful in obtaining grants from the Business Energy Savings Team (£12.4k) and Northumberland County Council through Nick Oliver's Members Local Improvement Scheme (£10k).
We are extremely grateful for both awards that have made the project possible.

Trees - December 2024
We are currently working on the management of the trees on the site, there are many! As part of this, we are unfortunately having to remove some diseased trees. We have all the necessary consents to do this.

A Decent Servant - December 2024
The grass cutting season is drawing to a close at Tynedale Park and its time for our trusty tractor mower to take a well-earned break. The mower will be taken off to Andy Purves's Engineer Department for a spot of welding and a thorough inspection.
The Trimax Procut mower was purchased by the Club in December 2012, a demo-model it cost the Club just over £4k so it really owes us nothing.
When time is called on our trusty mower the Grass-Cutting Team will be pushing to acquire a wider mower to ease the workload and free up staff for other jobs.

Large Car Park levelling - November 2024
Andy Purves and his big blue tractor have been busy attempting to get rid of all the various potholes which populate our large hard standing car park. This is a thankless task and it would help matters if cars and Chelsea tractors were driven in a slow, sensible fashion.

Dogs at Tynedale Park
The Club may have to follow the lead of many sports clubs and ban dogs altogether from Tynedale Park if irresponsible owners fail to keep their dogs on leads and clean up after their pets.
Tynedale Rugby Club has issued the warning in order to protect players at risk of contracting the nasty illness toxocariasis which can be found in dog muck.
The rugby club’s 35 acre site, has long been a popular dog walking area, but club members are becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of faeces being found on the grounds (some in bags, some not) where players train and games are played. Club officials have complained about having to clear dog muck off the fields before training and games.

Rat Attack - August 2024
Our small compact tractor has twice suffered from rat attacks in recent weeks. Two separate diesel fuel pipes have been gnawed through with rats either finding the fuel pipes excellent material for maintaining a good set of teeth or perhaps they were desperate for a few drops of diesel in recent hot weather! Steps have been taken to prevent the problem recurring.

Line Marking Machine - August 2024
After 9 years good service our line marking machine is falling apart and not working as it should. Club stalwarts Tim and Karen Tatman have kindly funded the purchase of a replacement machine.

Goal Posts - July 2024
Some of our goal posts were taken down to allow for the summer's Balloon Festival. It was an ideal opportunity to give them a lick of paint so the club appealed for volunteers. (Surprise, surprise - the ever willing and very thorough Tony Cooke stepped forward )
Tony also rubbed down and re-painted the gate onto the main pitch which was badly rusted and a bit of an eyesore.

Padel Courts - July 2024
The club have had a couple of independent enquiries relating to the establishment of Padel Tennis Courts at Tynedale Park. Padel is an outside squash/tennis game which is rapidly growing in popularity throughout the UK. What is Padel?

BAR1876
It's Christmas!!!
It may only be November but Christmas has arrived at BAR1876 with our impressively decorated tree.

BAR1876 goes 'On the Road'
Our highly acclaimed BAR1876 crew went mobile on Friday November 22nd when they set up and ran a bar at a Celebration of Life at the High School event held at the Winter Gardens, Queen Elizabeth High School.
Not surprisingly, although this was their first ‘on the road’ event, it was a huge success.
The team set the whole bar up with draught and bottled beer and cider, wines, spirits and soft drinks with a fully operating EPOS system and card reader in 1 hour.
Can't bring your party to the club? We can come to you!

Corbridge Sparkling Cider is now available on draught at BAR1876 in Tynedale Rugby Club’s club house.
Corbridge Sparkling Cider, which is made from apples grown in the village, is sold in aid of three local charities: -

Charlotte Straker Project,
Corbridge Youth Initiative, and
project organisers, the Corbridge Community Partnership.

YOUTH RUGBY
Under 16's selected for Newcastle Falcons Foundation Group - January 2025
Seven of our impressive Under 16's squad have been selected to join the 30-strong Newcastle Falcons Academy Foundation Group. They are Edwin Fenwick, Owen Forbes, Tom Lewis, Archie Neal, Matty Roe, Jake Tulip and Aaron Wilson.
Well done lads - a tremendous effort from all involved. ENJOY the experience.

Under 13's help Santa
Well done to eight Under 13’s boys and three parent volunteers who assisted the Tynedale Lions Santa Sleigh recently as it toured Jameson Drive, Cragside, and the Crofts Avenue areas of Corbridge providing opportunity for many local children and adults to see Santa and to quietly inform him of their wish lists for Christmas.
Their hard work collecting door to door also raised a creditable £386 which will be shared. The Under 13’s are planning and looking forward to an away rugby trip to Sterling next year. Let’s hope that will be equally rewarding for them.

The Australian Raptors Rugby Academy took on a North East Schools XV at Kingston Park on Wednesday 11th December.
Four Tynedale lads; Archie Neal, Aaron Wilson, Edwin Fenwick & George Laidler represented QEHS in the NE Side. Other schools in the squad included NSB, Yarm (Chris Webb), Durham (Scott Powell) & Kings Tynemouth.
The touring Aussies visited Tynedale on Tuesday night (18:30 onwards) for training & dinner.
On the tour, they play Belvedere College in Dublin (won 22-34), Ulster Schools & Edinburgh Reivers (run by Fletch, made up of players from Edinburgh, the Lothians and Borders.

Sport Tynedale Awards, 2024
Our Under 9's were shortlisted for the Youth Team of the Year award. The winner was announced at the 50th Anniversary of the Annual Sports Awards event which took place at the Tynedale Function Suite, Hexham Mart on Sunday 8th December.
We didn’t win the category but it was a great experience for the children who attended and has given them something to work towards in the future.
All of them displayed fantastic behaviour tonight and we were all very proud of them smiling and clapping for the winners.
Great ambassadors for Tynedale, well done to all involved.

ADULT RUGBY
Sauna at the Club - December 2024
The club have been hiring a mobile sauna for use on Adult section training nights to help aid recovery/recuperation. The sauna trailer, which can accommodate 10 people at a time, has been hired for an hour on training nights from Northumbrian Sauna.

Carl Fearns Debut - November 2024
When one of our 1stXV flankers fell ill on the eve of our match at Hull Ionians our current coach Carl Fearns was persuaded to come out of retirement and sit on the bench for the match. After a whip around for some new boots the ex-Sale, Bath, Lyon and Newcastle Falcons player didn't take that much persuading and he was duly called on to come off the bench for the final quarter. In a tough match in difficult conditions it is fair to say that 35-year-old Carl made a very big physical impression on events.
After hearing the news of Carl's successful return to the fray Martyn Hastie immediately rang Dean Richards to ask if he also fancied a comeback with a run out for the Centurions in their next match against Peterlee & Horden II's.

Dual Reg Players - Sept 2024
After rumours that we would not be getting any dual-reg players from Newcastle Falcons this season its all changed and we now have four:-
- Rhys Beechmans (centre) - ex-Prudhoe HS, ex-Gosforth Academy, ex-Blaydon RFC
- Joseph Davis (scrum half) - ex-Barnard Castle School from Crook, England U18.
- Isaac Keller (prop) - born in Germany, attended Ponteland HS before Gosforth Academy, England U18 and U19
- Charlie Turnbull (flanker) - ex Sedbergh captain and Percy Park.

All four youngsters have featured, and impressed, in 1stXV matches during the first half of the season.

Future Senior Rugby Tours
Our President, Neil Foster, is keen to maintain momentum from the successful Canada tour and is hoping to stage a short tour in May 2025 followed by a longer distance tour in 2026 (our 150 Anniversary year). He is currently seeking the level of player interest for a short 4-day tour to Canterbury, Kent in May 2025.

Captains for 2024-2025 - Sept 2024
Nothing official but putting two and two together it looks like Chris Wearmouth is captain of the 1stXV again this season with Jacob Brown continuing as captain of the Raiders.

Barnie Maddison - Sept 2024
Ex-Tynedale player Barnie Maddison has retired from playing and has been appointed Head Coach of Ealing Trailfinders Womens' Team.

Dean Richards gets new knee - August 2024
Coach Dean Richards is recovering from a knee operation so he may not be walking with his normal fluidity for a while.

Thorpes' and Fletchers' - August 2024
Two well known Tynedale names keep on producing quality rugby players.
Well done Conrad Thorpe who started at No12 for Newcastle Falcons U18's against Saracens at Kingston Park on August 14th, A tough match with Saracens winning 72-21.
Conrad was also selected for the next match against Yorkshire and congratulations to Ted Fletcher who started at No10 for the Falcons U17's who also played Yorkshire.

Ealing Trailfinders Women - August 2024
Premiership Womens side Ealing Trailfinders viited the north-east as part of their pre-season preparations and they held a training session at Tynedale Park on Tuesday 13th August after which they had lunch in the clubhouse. Ex-Tynedale player Barnie Maddison coaches the Ealing side which includes ex-Panther dual international Caity Mattinson, Caity was not with the Ealing squad at Tynedale as she was with the Scotland squad and will join up with the Eaking squad later in the week. The Ealing squad were staying in Allendale.

Colts expand
There is a big intake into our Colts from last season’s Under 16’s. To ensure game time for all our Colts are fielding two sides this season – a team in the HALBRO North East & Cumbria League will play on Sundays and a team will play in the Border League on Saturdays.

Gemma Bell
Ex-Tynedale Panther Gemma Bell was selected for a Senior Scotland Training Squad who held a 4-week training camp in july 2024. Gemma was a regular visitor at Tynedale Park in the week leading up to the camp putting herself through what looked like fairly intense fitness sessions.

Player Movements
William Jobling has joined Northern FC
Ben Blackburn has moved to live and work at Macclesfield and he has joined Macclesfield Rugby Club.
Ryan Scott has returned to Aspatria due to work commitments.
Micky Hall has joined Morpeth.
Henry Hayes has joined Ashington.
Joe Lilley has joined Wimbledon.
Jon Devereux has joined Old Albanian

Tom Mann (Back, ex-Wharfedale) has joined us after a time out from the game.
Dan Taylor (Half Back) has rejoined us from Blaydon.
Paddy Jobling-Purser (Hooker/Flanker) has joined us.
James Towart-Adams (Back/Flanker) has joined us
Harry Greenway (Flanker, ex-Newcastle University) has joined us.

SUMMER EVENTS
Our grounds are very busy, as usual, in the off season.
Events taking place included:-

Beer Festival
7’s Tournaments
Touch Rugby Tournament
Numerous Caravan Rallies
Weekly Car Boot Sales
Overnight Motorhome parking
South Tyne Steam Rally
EGGER UK (Hexham) 40th Anniversary Event
MotorCycle Club events
Northumberland Balloon Festival
Northumberland Classic & Performance Motor Show
Touch Rugby sessions
Pre-Season Training
Random Dog Walking and Dog Exercising!

CLUB MANAGEMENT/ADMINISTRATION

Our current Head of Youth Rugby Andrew Neal has been appointed as Northumberland County Chair of Youth. Unfortunately this means Andrew will step down from his Tynedale role after many excellent years of service.

Dave Kendall has stepped down from the President role after two excellent years service and takes over from Andrew Cuthbertson as Secretary (or Honorary Secretary as it was known in the more sensible days). Andrew after many years service on the committee is stepping down due to work commitments.

Rodney Wallace is taking over as the Club's Safeguarding Officer

John Austin has picked up a new role with Northumberland County. He is now an "Independent Director" whatever that means! We are sure he'll do a cracking job whatever it is.

Ian Lewis has stepped down from his role as Adult Membership Secretary and has been replaced by Becky Stewart.

OTHER
SPORT TYNEDALE have set up their own website which includes an entry for our rugby club.