Newcastle Ravens

Newcastle Ravens
Official website
Full name	Newcastle Ravens Rugby Football Club
Founded	2006 by Dave Burke
Location	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Ground(s)	Percy Park
Chairman	Derek Wilson
www.newcastleravens.co.uk

Newcastle Ravens Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team located in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The team was organised to help encourage gay people to take part in the sport. The team was founded on 1 May 2006 by Dave Burke who was the first Chairman and Captain, and it is run by a board of four elected members. The Ravens were admitted as members of the International Gay Rugby Association and Board in 2006.^[1] The Ravens played at Novocastrians Rugby Football Club from 2006-14, they have resided at Percy Park since 2014. The current Captain and Chairman is Derek Wilson, who together with his father Micky, also runs the clubs coaching programme.

Union Cup

The Ravens sent players to the 2007 Union Cup tournament in Copenhagen and played as part of the Cardiff Lions team. The combined squad recorded victories over NOP Amsterdam Rugby Club (35-5), Malmö Devilants (30-5 and 35-0) and the Caledonian Thebans RFC (5-25), drawing with the Emerald Warriors 10-10 on the way. The squad missed out in a tense final in Copenhagen to the Emerald Warriors RFC (10-5) after extra time.^[2] In May 2009 the club participated in the Union Cup tournament in London, hosted by the Kings Cross Steelers. In 2011 the Club entered the comptetition which was held in Bristol and will be sending a full squad to the 2015 competition to be held in Brussels in May.

Newcastle Falcons Corporate Rugby

The club participated in the 2007 Newcastle Falcons Corporate Rugby Tournament. The Ravens had Falcons and England rugby team player Mathew Tait in their squad for the event, during which they achieved a draw and two losses.

Caledonian Thebans Rugby Clinic

The Ravens attended the Caledonian Thebans RFC^[3] rugby clinic in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The 2007 tournament was capped with a mini 7s tournament and 15s game. The Ravens achieved a 3-1 win over the Thebans and a 0-0 draw with the Cardiff Lions. The 2008 and 2009 clinics finished with a 10s tournament, both of which were won by the Ravens.

The Bingham Cup

The Ravens teamed up with the Caledonian Thebans RFC^[4] to attend the 2008 Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament in Dublin under the joint team name of Northern Stags. The Stags entered the tournament at the Shield level but were promoted to the Bowl where they finished as Quarter Finalists. The Newcastle Ravens entered their own team into the Bingham Cup 2012 in Manchester where they won the Hoagland Cup. ^[5]

The Hadrian Cup

The club hosts an annual tournament, the Hadrian Cup,^[6] during February. The Hadrian Cup was named after the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was known to have had a homosexual lover and who also built the famous Hadrian's Wall which stretches across England from Newcastle to Carlisle. The first tournament welcomed teams from Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Belfast.

Northumberland League

The club started competing in the Northumberland League in the 2013/14 season.

References

Gay Rugby Clubs

International Gay Rugby Association and Board Bingham Cup Union Cup

Argentina	Pampas Rugby

Australia	Brisbane Hustlers Daylesford Dragons Melbourne Chargers Sydney Convicts

Belgium	Brussels Straffe Ketten

Canada	Armada Montréal Muddy York Ottawa Wolves

Chile	Titanes Rugby

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Germany	Berlin Bruisers Cologne Crushers

Ireland	Belfast Azlans Emerald Warriors

Italy	Libera Rugby Roma Roosters Rugby 7

Netherlands	Amsterdam Lowlanders

New Zealand	New Zealand Falcons

Portugal	Lisbon Dark Horses

Scotland	Caledonian Thebans Glasgow Alphas

South Africa	Blight Jozi Cats Wham Rugby

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Wales	BAF Praetorians Cardiff Lions Swansea Vikings

International	World Barbarians

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