NCA AWARDS DECEMBER 2003

 

NATIONAL THREE NORTH

COACH of the MONTH

Phil Lancaster & Craig Lee - Darlington

After a slow start to the season Darlington have risen up the National Three North League table thanks to impressive home form. They secured home wins against local rivals Blaydon and Tynedale but came unstuck away at Halifax, which has been the way of most clubs this season. 

Both Lancaster and Lee have played at the highest level representing West Hartlepool in the top flight as well as turning out for Wakefield.    

They have been at the club a number of years and overseen the clubs rise up the league, which culminated in their first ever appearance in National League rugby after securing the Powergen North One title last season.

The two players, who both work for the Fire Service, have excellent pedigree and compliment each other with Phil one of the canniest props around and Craig a fine footballer in the backs capable of playing in various positions.

PLAYER of the MONTH

Thomas McLaren  – Darlington Mowden Park

No 8 Thomas McLaren has made a big impact recently as Darlington MP climbed the league table to fourth after winning all three of their league matches in December.

McLaren joined Mowden Park in the summer form North East rivals Blaydon where he was leading try scorer last season with 14 tries.

This season he has continued to cross the try line from the back row and has already notched up nine tries in 12 matches, an impressive strike in anybodies book.

 

KICKER of the MONTH

Mike Scott – Fylde

Mike Scott picks up the award for the second successive month with an even better strike rate than he had in November. He turned in some impressive kicking displays in December and ended the moth with a highly impressive kicking success rate of 85.71% to take the kicker of the month award from the NCA with a strike rate over 4% better than the previous month.

Scott joined Fylde in the summer after a three year spell at Kendal having previously played his senior rugby at Aspatria and Orrell.

The highlight of his career to date was selection for the English Counties squad which toured Chile in the summer of 2002. He said at the time "The tour is a wonderful idea because it gives people a chance to go to places they would never have dreamt of. I love Cumbrian rugby and I hope that seeing me being selected for this tour will give people more of an incentive to play county rugby."
1st Team Manager Steve Rigby said, "We are very pleased that Mike has
joined the Club. He is a highly experienced playmaker, a very reliable
goal kicker and can play in more than one back position."