Bingham Cup 2008

The Ravens have just come back from the Bingham Cup in Dublin. The tournament consisted of 4 trophies this year, the Shield, Bowl, Plate and Cup. Over 800 players took part, with teams travelling from all over the world to compete.

The Northern Stags (combined team of Newcastle Ravens and Caledonian Thebans) were entered in the Lower Tier of the tournament and after a strong win against NOP Amsterdam and two close losses against Gotham Knights 2 and Kings Cross Steelers 2, the Stags were promoted from the Shield to the Bowl stage of the tournament. In the bowl stage we played against the first team of the tournament hosts, Emerald Warriors 1, but unfortunately lost despite being tied until half time. The team performed incredibly well. I'm very proud that despite it being our first ever 15s tournament, we were promoted above the Shield stage and into the Bowl.

The Newcastle Ravens start their pre-season training at the end of July / early August and have set their sights on the Union Cup being held in London in June 2009.

Final scores for our games were:

Northern Stags (31) - (7) NOP Amsterdam

Gotham Knights 2 (17) - (12) Northern Stags

Kings Cross Steelers 2 (10) - (0) Northern Stags

Emerald Warriors 1 (26) - (5) Northern Stags.

The Bingham Cup winners were Sydney Convicts 1.

Visit the Bingham Gallery for all the pics