At the weekend Darlington Mowden Park travelled to Tynedale for the annual Under-18 Super 7s Tournament.

This is the traditional start to the season for this age group of girls in the North East and it's the first time that Mowden has had a team to enter. Mowden's Under 18 Girls' team is just starting up but, although the team is new, the players are experienced, coming up from the Under 16s with most having played representative rugby at both County and Regional level. Playing against Tynedale and Redcar, the Park girls produced some fine, flowing rugby and showed that they are going to be a force to be reckoned with.

The first match against Tynedale was testing for Mowden who took the full first half to settle down and take stock of the older and more experienced Tynedale squad's tactics. At half time Mowden was behind by 12 points but a tough team talk raised their spirits and they came back on to assert their authority over the game; Tynedale never looked like scoring in the second half. Excellent team play enabled winger Ashleigh Wright to use her speed to score two superb tries, one of which was converted in the closing seconds by Abby Blackburn. The final result of 12 - 12 did not reflect the skill of the Mowden girls but was evidence of their shaky start.

Going into the match against Redcar, the Mowden pack was fired up, confident and eager to get points on the board. The opening try came from Ashleigh Wright after two minutes. This was converted by Abby Blackburn to put Mowden in the lead 7 - 0. Nicola Jackson then went on to score two tries in quick succession, powering her way over the line to end the first half with Mowden 17 points up. In the second half there was no holding the Park girls back; their stamina, speed and superior ball handling skills ensured that Redcar was unable to notch up any points against them. Laura Meade and Donna- Marie Miller, newly recruited from Hartlepool, both showed they deserved their team places by performing well and scoring tries. Donna Marie was thrilled with her try as it was the first time she had touched down in a match situation! The final score against Redcar of 36-0 included a further try by Ashleigh Wright - her fourth of the tournament - and two conversions by Abby Blackburn.

The official outcome of the Super 7s was a draw between Tynedale and Mowden.

However, the Mowden girls had the moral victory as Tynedale declined to play a final deciding match against Park.