Darlington Mowden Park Sharks

Darlington Mowden Park Sharks Ladies Rugby Football Club (commonly shortened to DMP Sharks) is a women's rugby union club in Darlington, County Durham, England founded in 1996 as Ripon Ladies RUFC.

Darlington Mowden Park Sharks

Full name	Darlington Mowden Park Sharks Ladies Rugby Football Club
Union	Durham County Rugby Football Union
Nickname	Sharks
Founded	1996; 29 years ago (1996) (as Ripon Ladies) 2002; 23 years ago (2002) (as Thirsk Sharks) 2006; 19 years ago (2006) (as Darlington Mowden Park Sharks)
Ground	The Darlington Arena
Most tries	Louisa Ramsey (42)
League	Premier 15s
2022–23	9th
Official website
www.mowdenpark.com/teams/196169

They are the ladies team of Darlington Mowden Park R.F.C. and played in the Allianz Premier 15s until 2023.^[1] They play their home games at The Darlington Arena.^[2]

History

Ripon Ladies (1996-2002)

The club was founded in 1996 in Ripon as Ripon Ladies RUFC.^[3][4]

After an impressive start after their entry into the Rugby Union league (including three promotions in four seasons), the team needed to look to change their training night to build their squad sufficiently to complete and to allow training to take place for those who played university matches or had regional training. A failure to resolve this issue saw a temporarily proposed resolution of playing at Thirsk, become permanent and the club left Ripon at the end of the 2001-2002 season.^[5]

Thirsk Sharks (2002-2006)

The club moved to Thirsk, North Yorkshire, in 2002 where it was known as Thirsk Sharks RFC.^[6][5][7]

Darlington Mowden Park Sharks (2006 Onwards)

The club then moved to Darlington in 2006^[8] and became affiliated to Darlington Mowden Park and changed its name accordingly.^[9] In 2009, Darlington Mowden Park Sharks were promoted from Championship 1 North to the Women's Premiership after finishing top of the table. They then defeated Championship 1 South team, Bath Rugby Ladies in extra time in the playoffs in order to be promoted.^[10]

In 2020, as part of the league re-tender process and formal agreements were confirmed, they changed their name to Darlington Mowden Park Durham Sharks to reflect their enhanced partnership with Durham University, and also played their home games for the latter part of the 2020/21 Allianz Premier 15s season (from February 2021) at Durham's Maiden Castle ground.^[11] Between 2020 and 2022 the club was known as DMP Durham Sharks for partnership purposes.^[12]

In 2022, crowd-funding raised £50,000, which enabled the club to compete in the 2022/23 Allianz Premier 15s season.^[13] The 2022/23 season was the club's last in the Allianz Premier 15s, with the club deciding not to bid for membership in the 2023/24 season as it was felt that "the significant financial commitment required was unsustainable in both the short and long term, particularly for a community rugby club".^[14] The club was accepted into Championship North for the 2023/24 season but withdrew in August 2023 due to a lack of players, with the stated intention of re-entering the league system in the 2024/25 season.^[15][16]

Stadium

Main article: The Darlington Arena

Darlingon Mowden Park Sharks play at The Darlington Arena, a 25,000-seat stadium in the town. The stadium is now called the Northern Echo Arena^[17] due to a sponsorship deal with the Northern Echo news and media company.

Prior to 2012, Darlingon Mowden Park Sharks used to play their home matches at Yiewsley Drive,^[18] until Darlington Mowden Park purchased The Darlington Arena after its previous tenants, association football club Darlington F.C., went out of business and its phoenix club, Darlington 1883 F.C. decided to play its home games outside Darlington.^[19] They started playing at The Darlington Arena in the 2013–14 season,^[20] alongside Darlington Mowden Park's men's team as well as their mini and junior teams.^[2]

Notable players

 England internationals

Zoe Aldcroft Jo Brown Katy Daley-McLean Ursula Hardy Heather Kerr Ruth Laybourn

Claudia MacDonald La Toya Mason Georgina Roberts Abbie Scott Tamara Taylor Lauren Torley (7s)

 Ireland international

• Jo Brown
• Sophie Spence

 Scotland internationals

Beth Blacklock Lisa Cockburn Abi Evans (15s and 7s) Sarah Law Katy Green Elis Martin Lisa Martin[21] Caity Mattinson

Rachel McLachlan Liz Musgrove Louisa Ramsey (top try scorer (42 tries in 68 appearances), became the first player to score over 10 tries for Scotland)[9] Lana Skeldon Lisa Thomson Evie Tonkin Lucy Winter

 France international

• Maelle Picut

 United States internationals

• Meya Bizer
• Rachel Ehrecke
• Tess Feury
• Olivia Ortiz
• Kathryn Treder

Source:^[22][23]

Season summaries

	League
Season	Competition	Final position	Points	Play-offs
1998–99	Women's North Division 3	1st		Promoted to Women's North Division 2[24]
1999–00	Women's North Division 2	3rd		[25]
2000–01	Women's North Division 2	1st	[a]	Promoted to Women's North Division 1[26]
2001–02	Women's North Division 1[27]	1st	20	Promoted to Women's Premiership 2[28]
2002–03	Women's Premiership 2	2nd	14	Promoted to Women's Premiership 1[29][b]
2003–04	Women's Premiership 1	6th	13	[30]
2004–05	Women's Premiership 1	7th	13	[31]
2005–06	Women's Premiership 1	8th	11	Relegated to Women's Premiership 2[32]
2006–07	Women's Premiership 2	2nd	59	[33]
2007–08	Women's Championship 1	1st	61	[34][c][d]
2008–09	Women's Championship 1	1st	41	Promoted to Women's Premiership[35]
2009–10	Women's Premiership	3rd	35	[36]
2010–11	Women's Premiership	6th	28	[37]
2011–12	Women's Premiership	7th	26	[38]
2012–13	Women's Premiership	7th	10	[39]
2013–14	Women's Premiership	5th	31	[40]
2014–15	Women's Premiership	7th	23	[41]
2015–16	Women's Premiership	7th	10	[42]
2016–17	Women's Premiership	8th	12	[43]
2017–18	Tyrrells Premier 15s	8th	26	[44]
2018–19	Tyrrells Premier 15s	8th	18	[45]
2019–20	Tyrrells Premier 15s	6th	24	Season annulled[46]
2020–21	Allianz Premier 15s	10th	5	[46]
2021–22	Allianz Premier 15s	10th	0	[46]
2022–23	Allianz Premier 15s	9th	10	Not included in Premiership Women's Rugby[e][46]
2023–24	Women's Championship North 1	-	-	Withdrew before start of season[48]

Gold background denotes champions
Silver background denotes runners-up
Pink background denotes relegated

Notes

1. Ripon were unbeaten in this campaign
2. Ripon was promoted as the winners; Wasps II, being a second team, could not be promoted
3. Women's Premiership 2 rebranded as Women's Championship 1 for 2007–08 season
4. No promotion to Women's Premiership in this season
5. DMP Sharks did not apply for inclusion in The PWR due to financial investment requirements^[47]