nick Sunday 3rd of October marked a momentous milestone for Southwold Women’s rugby and Women’s Rugby on the East Coast.
Not content with having one mother daughter pair on their team Southwold Women’s Rugby now boasts two mother daughter duos.
The team played their first league fixture away to Ipswich scorpions, suffering a narrow defeat; fighting valiantly throughout and were definitely the stronger team with ball in hand.
Michaela Scarle started playing for Southwold Women’s a whopping 24 years ago when she was 28, one of the founding members of the team and has been part of the lifeblood ever since. She started at fly half and after having her children has since moved to second row where she dons the number 5 shirt most Sunday’s, unless asked to step up to front row! She works for the early years team at Suffolk County Council along with juggling various roles at Southwold Rugby club.
Annabel Scarle is 20 years old and started playing for Southwold Rugby club as a mini but left aged 9 as rugby clashed with her gymnastic commitments. She since joined the senior women’s team aged 18, where her speed and game knowledge make her a valuable asset to the team. She plays at full back but occasionally on the wing. Since joining back with the Senior team she also started playing rugby at UEA where she’s studying Physiotherapy.
Rianna Lees is 40 years old and has been playing for the club since 2013, initially as a flanker but has proved herself versatile enough to play anywhere in the pack along with scrum half. She’s feisty, tenacious and an asset in both attack and defence. She’s currently working at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital as a HCA along with bringing up two children and vice captaining the rugby team.
Olivia Lees is 18, this is her first season playing senior rugby, she started playing aged 14 for Beccles Girls Rugby, a well-established path to Women’s senior rugby at Southwold Rugby club. We were positively thrilled to have not just her but also Courtney another debuting player from Beccles Girls Rugby on the pitch with us on Sunday and if they were phased by the step up to senior rugby it certainly didn’t show. Olivia has deferred her place at Durham university and intends to do some travelling this academic year, along with playing a bit of rugby of course.
This does seem to be an almost established tradition at Southwold Rugby Club. Not only do we have Michaela, Annabel, Rianna and Olivia, previously we had Karen Fletcher and Jessica Wagner (nee Fletcher) that played alongside one another here for about 6 seasons. Karen unfortunately has since hung up her boots due to injury and Jessica is currently taking a break with children but it’s always great to still see the pair of them on the side-lines cheering us on during games. Long may the tradition continue, and we hope to welcome more mother and daughter pairs to Southwold Rugby club in the future.
Southwold Women’s Rugby train at Halesworth Campus, IP19 8PY, on Thursday nights at 7pm, all players new and old are welcome to join. Beccles RUFC Girls train on Tuesday nights at 6.45 at the Hub, Beef Meadow, Beccles, NR34 9RH and are also welcoming new players.
