A LEADING women's rugby team has found a new home at Thirsk RUFC after attempts to change their training night at Ripon ended in failure.

Ripon Ladies, who won promotion to the National Premier Two league last season, have now become Thirsk Sharks.

The move came about after the women's team asked if they could train on Tuesday or Thursday nights, at the same time as the men.

Team captain Caroline Bell explained that continuing to train on a Wednesday night had become impossible if the team was to build on the success it had achieved in recent seasons.

She said: "After last season's promotion, we faced travelling all over the country for matches and needed to build the squad to survive at that level."

Wednesday night training had always been a problem as players at university played matches on that night. Many of the Ripon squad were also involved in regional training on Wednesdays.

Caroline said: "Players were having to make a choice and, playing at our standard, we couldn't have people not training together as a team."

The option of training on a Monday or Friday night was also thought impractical and the ladies section asked the club if they could train with the men on a Tuesday or Thursday.

But no decision had been made as the summer progressed with the women still training on a Wednesday.

A request to Thirsk to temporarily use their training facilities on a Thursday night - sharing the club's one pitch with the men - was met with a positive response, but the team still expected the issue at Ripon to be resolved. However, the women were told that there was not enough space to accommodate both them and the men on the same night.

Other options were considered, including training at the Army camp in Ripon. But if security measures were tightened in the future, the team would have been left with nowhere to train.

With the situation threatening to disrupt preparations for the new season, a meeting between the club and the ladies section failed to find a solution and it was amicably agreed that the women's team would have to move on.

The team played their first game under their new name last Sunday and got off to a fine start. They defeated league leaders Richmond II, from London, 18-8 in a crucial encounter.

See page 26 for a full match report