Ten Years On - Newcastle Gosforth 1994/95
By Mark H
July 19 2004
I was getting married (bad move), a Brian Lara inspired Warwickshire had just won three of the four domestic cricket trophies, and Leicester were shortly to win their first league championship since 1987/88.
It was the last full season before professionalism, with the change gradually coming in during the following season before the upper echelons of the game were fully professional come 1996/97. So, where were you? Newcastle, in the pre-Falcon days of Newcastle Gosforth, found themselves in National League Two, having been relegated along with London Irish after just one season in the top flight, and having managed victories over Orrell and Irish as well as a home draw against Gloucester. Hard to believe that the next season in the top division would bring the championship… 1994/95 saw Saracens win National Two, six points clear of Wakefield, who in turn were seven points in front of our heroes. Such was the rest of the division though, that if just two of the positive results had been the other way round, then Kingston Park would have been hosting third tier rugby when the game made its big change, and it’s questionable whether Rob Andrew would have been tempted out of London. Just two points separated third place from relegated Fylde in ninth; on such small margins are futures made. The final table: Winger Tony Penn was the division’s top try scorer with eight, breaking the club league record for a back by two, but remaining two short of Peter Walton’s 1991/92 figure. Simon Mason converted 21 of those 37 tries (again the divisional high), and ended the season with 193 points, 20 behind the 213 of Wakefield’s Mike Jackson. It was an excellent return for Mason, having joined the club from Liverpool St Helens in the summer, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that both Mason and Penn were two of the four ever presents of the 28 players used - the others being Paul Vanzandvliedt and Andy Hetherington. The results:- Richard Arnold captained the side, and made his own little piece of history (albeit unwanted) when he became the first player in league history to be sent off twice in the same season, against Nottingham in October and against Irish in April. Not only were the side the second highest try scorers, they also stopped the opposition scoring a try on six occasions - the best in the division. Fourteen different players crossed the line, Penn’s eight tries being supported by five from a very young Martin Corry, and four from Ross Wilkinson. Indeed, of that squad, only Corry is still playing top flight rugby today. The squad:- Archer, Arnold, Casado, Cassidy, Chandler, Clark P, Clark R, Corry, Cramb, Douglas, Fowler, Frankland, Fraser, Gibbs, Hetherington, Hoole, Long, Mason, Merritt, Metcalfe, Mitchell, Parker, Penn, Robson, Vanzandvliedt, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkinson Capacity of Kingston Park was 9,999, with just 365 seats, an adult season ticket cost £65 with concessions costing £45, and it was £6 and £4 respectively to watch an individual match. In the Pilkington Cup, Newcastle exited at the first hurdle in the fourth round, 58-12 at home to the eventual beaten finalists, Wasps (beaten 36-16 in that final by Bath). Elsewhere, Leicester beat Bath by four points to the National One title, as well as winning the Middlesex Sevens, Queensland Reds won the Super 10, England won the Grand Slam, and Warwickshire beat Northumberland (featuring four Newcastle players - Chandler, Metcalfe, Frankland and Wilkinson) 15-9 in the County Championship final. Third place this coming season anyone?
