The Board was able to  secure grant funding for the new lights, which exceed RFU specifications,  and once the new top soil and grass seed have done their  trick it will greatly benefit all of our teams.

There will be league rugby at Brinkburn on most Saturdays during the season,  with the Stags playing the first teams of some clubs in the new Counties Two North East South (level 8) league (fixtures here) and the Bucks one league lower in Counties Three North East South (fixtures here).

The Firsts will have a few players back who were unavailable for much of last season,notably Jake Linighan and Will Corbett, and will be looking to take advantage of having the first two league games at home. Newly-promoted Novos (September 12th) and newly-relegated Penrith (September 19th) will provide stiff tests.

The senior coaches have put together an intensive warm-up programme, which should get rid of the cobwebs. It begins with a summer social for all senior players on August 15th  followed by a whole squad training session with the Billingham squad at Brinkburn on Tuesday August 18th.

There will be a return warm-up first team game at Old Brods in Halifax on Saturday August  22nd,  followed by a whole squad game against Darlington at Brinkburn, on Friday August 28th.

Finally, Northern have paid us the compliment of travelling to Brinkburn for their final warm-up game on Saturday September 5th before they start their new season in Regional One, having won our league by some distance last season.