DMP Sharks

They conceded 1,240 points, and scored 63. From 18 league games, they suffered 18 defeats. Last season, DMP Sharks delivered the worst performance in Allianz Premier 15s’ brief history. But it got worse. Just 83 days later, their entire existence was threatened.

As the DMP Sharks trudge from the field of the Darlington Arena for the final time in their 2021/22 campaign, the electronic scoreboard burns a painful 0-64 scoreline into their memories, a visiting Gloucester-Hartpury outfit having proved far too strong on the day, just as everyone had that season, and indeed the season before. In two campaigns, over 36 league games, they had one win. And this, another whitewash, makes it eighteen straight losses this season, with more than 1,000 points scored against, easily the worst in the division.

And yet, the Sharks, the sole representatives of top-flight women’s rugby in the north-east of the country, have produced more than twenty international players with the likes of World Cup winner Tamara Taylor, World Player of the Year Zoe Aldcroft and Claudia MacDonald, all coming through their ranks. Their current plight is not due to a lack of the hard work they have put in to get to where they are today, despite countless challenges, but it does pose the question of how they got to this point, and, more pertinently, where do they go from here?

With a population just shy of 100,000, Darlington is the largest town in County Durham, and has a proud steam-train history. George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 first travelled along the Stockton and Darlington Railway line in 1825, becoming the first passenger-carrying train in the world.

The town has long been seen as a centre for engineering, supplying bridges to far corners of the world including Zimbabwe and the River Nile.

Although, despite the town’s significant contributions to the world, when famed writer Daniel Defoe visited, he damningly reported it to have, ‘nothing remarkable but dirt’. At the time, the roads of Darlington were unpaved and so it gained a reputation for being a messy place.

Clearly, he had not heard of the beer-and-milk dowsed fire of 1585. Or the three plague outbreaks that ravaged the town in the same century. If he had, you might have thought that the Robinson Crusoe author would have something to say about the ‘remarkable’ resilience of a place battered by adversity throughout the ages, and, if he was alive today, he’d certainly remark at the plight of Darlington Mowden Park Sharks in the Allianz Premier 15s.

Darlington Mowden Park have been around as a men’s club since 1946, starting out as the Old Boys of Darlington Queen Elizabeth Grammar School – made up largely of ex-forces personnel. Over the years, they found local success in the Durham County Cup, and in 1954 won the Billingham Cup, the premier sevens competition in the north-east at the time.

In 1958, over a pork pie supper at the Boot and Shoe in the centre of Darlington, the club’s committee decided that it would purchase a property on Victoria Road, to transform into a clubhouse. However, by the end of the sixties, they were forced to move once more due to the development of the Inner Ring Road. This time, after searching the area, the club was able to buy the ground at Yiewsley Drive.

This would remain their home until late 2012, when they moved to the Darlington Arena, after it was vacated by the town’s football club and their millionaire, safecracker owner, George Reynolds. The 25,000-seater arena had proven too costly for the club, driving the football team into administration on three separate occasions. It was purchased by DMP for £2 million, despite the original construction costs being £18m.

By the early 2000s, DMP were thriving as a club, with multiple age group and senior teams. The involvement of girls throughout the age groups made it an attractive prospect for the Sharks, whose nomadic beginnings meant that they had never settled at a club with a pathway for young female players.

The Sharks started out at Ripon in 1996, later moving to Thirsk RFC where they had a short spell in the premiership. This ended when two unfulfilled fixtures meant that they were relegated into the championship. On the back of this, it became clear that they needed to be at a club where the junior section could feed into the team, and so in 2006 they moved to Darlington, who had the girls, but no senior women’s team. “It was hard from the beginning,” recounts Graham Sykes, who has chaired the grounds committee at Darlington since 2005 when the team played at Yiewsley Drive, although he was often a committee of one, being the only groundsman at the time. “Not everyone accepted that, suddenly, this women’s team were coming in, they’ll get priority to play on the pitch on a Sunday, they’ll get this, they’ll get that.”

The financial plight of the club has always been one of the main hurdles faced by the Sharks, who are now the last remaining team in the Allianz Premier 15s without a direct link with a premiership men’s team. Such was the attitude of the team and its supporters that they took matters into their own hands, doing everything within their power to make it to each fixture.

“I remember Tamara Taylor, Katy McLean, all of them, and myself, on a Saturday we would be bag-packing at Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, or wherever. That is how, in the early days, we paid for the transport to get down to London, or Worcester, or wherever we were going.

“They were tough days,” Graham admits. “Especially for the girls. There they were well-respected rugby players, spending the day before a match standing at a till for six or seven hours.

“We did fundraise with a group called the Friends of Sharks. People would subscribe, and that would bring in about £4,000 or £5,000 a year.”

One of the biggest moments, Graham recalls, was when the RFU decided that they would contribute to transport and accommodation costs. This was massive, as it meant they could dedicate more time to preparing for their weekend matches, without having to think about fundraising in their local supermarkets.

For Graham, the Sharks were always meant to be at Darlington, and he was one of the first club members to welcome them with open arms. “What they brought to the club,” he tells us, “was an absolute breath of fresh air.

“They had great spirit. Like a box of frogs, they were, up to mischief all the time. It was a constant laugh. What they did was play hard, but party hard as well.”

None more so than current first-team captain, Georgina, or George, Thomas-Roberts who has played every season for the club since she first joined in 2006. “I remember once when we were on the way back from an away game, stopped at the service station,” recalls Graham.  “We counted everyone off, and everyone back on, and there was one missing. It was George. She had hidden herself in the luggage rack, and was just laid there giggling, waiting for someone to find her.”

George, who has a background in analytical chemistry and now works in the quality department for a pharmaceutical company, found herself playing rugby when she moved out of the north-east, to attend university at Bath. “I grew up in Yorkshire so there was no union, it was all league,” she tells us. “It was off the back of missing a flight to a skeleton bobsleigh competition that I picked up rugby. I never looked back.”

For George, who plays at scrum-half, the journey has been a big part of her life, witnessing the rise to the top and subsequent slump in form in recent seasons.

The team secured promotion into the Premiership in 2009 after finishing top of the Championship 1 North league and beating Bath in a north versus south play-off. The first few years in the top tier were no walk in the park for the Sharks, but a handful of wins kept them from propping up the league.  “We always were a mid-table club, competing with the other teams in the country,” George explains.

“But I think since the progression of the professionalism of women’s rugby, the club has kind of been left behind a bit.”

The increasing level of professionalism has been great for England at the national level of the game, but the uneven shift of club teams towards a more professional setup has seen smaller teams left by the wayside. “We’re not linked to a big men’s club, we don’t have the same financial resources as the other teams, and that’s definitely played a big role.

“We’ve been unable to progress as quickly or move forward in the same way that the other teams have.”

But it is has never been in the nature of the Sharks to bow down and quit. Being the underdogs is something that the team have thrived on and built their culture around. “We’ve been on the wrong end of a number of very high-scoring games,” George admits. “Just before Christmas at probably one of our lowest points, we took a step back, and asked ‘what can we do?’.

“One of the things we came up with was just to focus on the things we can control. Show up to training with the right attitude and put in 100 per cent effort every time.”

With the RFU having recently revealed a new ten-year strategy to transform the top flight and help each team to reach full professional status with a whopping £222 million to be invested, there is clearly a growing awareness of the uneven playing field that exists at the elite level of the game. With some teams being almost fully professional, others having several professional players, and some, such as the Sharks, having a squad made up of physics students, schoolteachers, analytical chemists, and a whole host of other full-time occupations, it is no surprise that there is a gap in performance at the very top of the game.

George speaks honestly about the current void, not just in England, but the world over. “We’ve noticed a difference in some teams becoming semi-professional, with players being able to commit their lives full-time to get better at rugby,” she says. “It’s made a huge impact and you can see it on the international stage – there’s a big gap at the minute.”

Despite the challenges facing the Sharks as that final game of the season came to an end, at least the closing of one door meant the opening of another. A chance to hit reset and go again next season. Or at least that’s what everyone thought.

But then, on Friday 5th August, news broke the team were in financial jeopardy, and urgently needed to raise an estimated £50,000 to remain in the league. Players and club members took to social media to appeal to ‘supporters of rugby and women’s sport’ for their help in securing a position in the league for the coming season. They had three days to raise funds, and meet the RFU deadline.

For many of the players who were front and centre of the efforts to gain the required support and rescue their team from these murkiest of waters, the news had come as a complete shock.

Chloe Burton is a young Shark who joined the side via their centre of excellence when she was sixteen, signing her first development contract a year later. She has now been a part of the team for four years. “It took us by surprise,” she admits when asked if the player group were aware of the situation behind the scenes. “As players, our entire focus was building towards next season.”

Despite being completely unaware until the news broke, they were all quick to respond, taking to social media to do everything in their power to pull themselves from the fire. “I’m proud to be associated with everybody involved in it,” she says. “We’ve got hundreds of comments from old Sharks that used to play for us who have now moved on, but still recognise the importance of DMP.

“The number of comments on there, from Sarries fans or Quins fans, it made us feel that we are actually wanted, and we are actually valued.”

The weekend that ensued saw donations pouring in from all corners of women’s rugby and the wider sporting community. By Monday, the Crowdfunder had surpassed £30,000 in 72 hours. An additional day was granted to reach the target.

“It’s been incredible,” Chloe tells us. “And the support that we’ve managed to get in such a short period of time proves that there is a demand for women’s rugby in the north-east.”

Just one week on from the initial announcement, another was made by both the RFU and the Sharks, that the club had been successful in sourcing the required funds. Relief poured from the Sharks and their wider family, who couldn’t quite believe the rollercoaster ride they had been on in the previous seven days.

‘The backing of members, supporters, sponsors and the general public has been incredible and has truly shown the power of sport’, read the official statement released by the club.

But despite the ecstasy of the moment this time around, the fact remains that DMP Sharks are very much a struggling side. Their situation is far from dreamy, and a lot still needs to change for them to be truly secure in the Allianz Premier 15s

For Anthony Corps, who has been involved with the Sharks since their humble origins at Ripon, through the days at Thirsk, and watched them grow at DMP, recent events have been a result of a downward spiral that has spanned the last few seasons. Anthony, who is chair of the management group for the team, took one of the Sharks very first training sessions over 25 years ago and has been involved in various capacities ever since.  “Let’s not beat around the bush, a lot of it is a cash issue,” he tells us, on the topic of what has gone wrong for the Sharks in recent years. “As more premiership men’s teams have got involved, they [the women’s teams] have had better setups, and people are getting offers from decent clubs, potentially with more of a cash incentive. It’s made it hard to retain players.”

Looking to the future of the side, and what comes next, Anthony hopes that the plight of the Sharks will have helped to raise awareness of their situation and encourage players from the region to play for and stay with the team.

“The important thing is to secure elite women’s rugby in the north-east. We hope that the profile raising, and the cash coming into the programme is going to help us be competitive.”

The Crowdfunder reached £50,000, and it continues to raise money to support the team. But one huge takeaway for Anthony and the Sharks has been the importance of the local area in improving their chances of competing at the top level. “We’ve had so much support from grassroots locally,” he says. “We have a community programme that we want to tap into and expand. We want to get good at the top end, and that starts with the juniors, local clubs and colleges.”

With a push for the north-east, and the rest of the country to get behind the Sharks, there is renewed hope that the side can build a strong team around local talent and begin to achieve their full potential at the elite level.

However, there is still a lot to be done behind the scenes. As the club enters the re-tender process, questions will be asked of who is coming in and whether they are able to provide the support needed. “It will involve the Sharks players because they are the best players in this part of the world at present,” Anthony tells us. “But it may end up being a bid with another institution, another club, or university.

“The important thing is that the bid in the north-east is really strong.”

Only time will tell where the Sharks go from here, but for now they are safe in the knowledge that they have another season in the Allianz Premier 15s. For everyone involved at the club, and those watching from the outside, it has been a rollercoaster of emotions, one that is surely not over yet.

For George Thomas-Roberts and the rest of the Sharks players, it is very much about hitting reset, focusing on what they as players can do, and walking through that open door into the light of a new season.  “We want to continue with our pre-season and build on some of the small successes of the last, and actually be more competitive,” she says. “We want to be in the league first and foremost, but we want to be competing, and we want to offer the players support and funding similar to the level of other clubs so we can have a level playing field.”

Throughout this tale of twists and turns, adversity, and resilience, one focus has remained consistent; making sure women’s rugby is represented in the north-east of the country. “We want there to be a player pathway for all players,” says George. “Players that want to come through and play elite rugby and play for their country. That is the number one goal.”   

Story by Tyrone Bulger

Pictures by Russ Williams

This extract was taken from issue 19 of Rugby.
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