On Sunday 16th October a squad of U14 girls were hosted at Darlington Mowden Park for an afternoon of festival format rugby. It was great to see 9 teams at that age with good sized and in many cases full squads of girls. Due to unavailability's and an injury or two Penrith travelled with 11 players - meaning that everyone got to play all of each 15 minute game.

First up was a win against the (green and white!) of Billingham who were a well drilled outfit with good distribution. They managed to score first, but this jolted Penrith into action who hit back with scores from Paige and Summer. Win 3-2.

Second game was to be our toughest of the day against a Darlington side blessed with some particularly strong runners who took advantage of some of Penrith weak spots to run in 3 tries in succession. However credit to Penrith who dug in, fought back to win some ball at the ruck and eventually scored a well deserved long range try by Emilia Stamper. Loss 4-1

Finally Penrith took on Whitley Bay Rockcliffe. Another big squad of well organised good handlers. Again coming off a break Penrith were slow to start, conceding initially. This spurred the girls into action and they struck back with some very direct running to gain field position - followed by solid drives to score from Lara and Bianca and a typical longer range score from Freya. Win 3-1

Congratulations to Katy upon her debut for the team!

Coaches player awarded to Erin for consistently tackling well, rucking accurately and always taking the ball forward - good hard work!

Thanks go the DMP for hosting and organising, and to all our opposition on the day for some hard, fair and enjoyable contests.

squad - Millie, Emilia (1), Bianca (1), Freya (1), Lara (1), Paige (1), Leoni, Summer (1), Katy, Eleanor, Erin

Next up - Barnard Castle at home, Sunday 23rd October