2000–01 National Division Three North

2000–01 National Division Three North
Countries	England
Champions	Stourbridge
Runners-up	Sedgley Park (also promoted)
Relegated	Aspatria, Walsall
Attendance	40,865 (average 389 per match)[a 1]
Highest attendance	1,500 Dudley Kingswinford v Stourbridge 16 December 2000 Stourbridge v Dudley Kingswinford 31 March 2001
Lowest attendance	100 Aspatria v Sedgley Park 18 November 2000 Aspatria v Tynedale 2 December 2000
Top point scorer	Paul Brett (New Brighton) 298 points
Top try scorer	Gary Marshall (Nuneaton) 20 tries
← 1999–00 2001–02 →

The 2000–01 National Division Three North was the first season (fourteenth overall) of the fourth division (north) of the English domestic rugby union competition using the name National Division Three North. New teams to the division included Dudley Kingswinford who were promoted as the champions of Midlands Division 1 and Tynedale who were champions of North Division 1 with no northern based teams being relegated from the 1999-00 Jewson National League One.^[1][2] The league system was 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw with the promotion system changing for this season with a playoff system being introduced. The champions of both National Division Three North and National Division Three South would automatically go up but the runners up of these two divisions would meet each other in a one off match (at the home ground of the side with the superior league record) to see who would claim the third and final promotion place to National Division Two for the following season.

The season was a very fractured one due to the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak which primarily affected the two northernmost clubs in the division - Aspatria and Tynedale - leading to a large number of fixtures being cancelled in the latter half of the season.^[3] The league champions were Stourbridge who pipped Sedgley Park to the league title by just one point to gain promotion to the 2001–02 National Division Two.^[4] Sedgley Park would join them soon after when they won their promotion playoff game at home against the 2000-01 National Division Three South runners up Launceston in front of over 1,000 fans.^[5] The foot-and-mouth outbreak made relegation far from straightforward as initially the bottom two were Aspatria and Tynedale, who had played 18 games each - less than any of the other teams in the division. In Tynedale's case this was particularly hard as they were only 1 point behind 12th placed Sandal but had played six games less. In the end the RFU had to re-think relegation and used a complicated process based on early season form which meant that 14th placed Aspatria and 11th placed Walsall went down.^[3][6] Aspatria dropped to North Division 1 while Walsall went into Midlands Division 1.^[7][8]

Participating teams and locations

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Aspatria	Bower Park		Aspatria, Cumbria
Bedford Athletic	Putnoe Woods	500	Bedford, Bedfordshire
Doncaster	Castle Park	3,075	Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Dudley Kingswinford	Heathbrook		Kingswinford, Dudley, West Midlands
Liverpool St Helens	Moss Lane		St Helens, Merseyside
Morley	Scatcherd Lane		Morley, Leeds, West Yorkshire
New Brighton	Hartsfield	2,000	Wirral, Merseyside
Nuneaton	Liberty Way	4,314 (514 seats)	Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Sandal	Milnthorpe Green		Sandal Magna, Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Sedgley Park	Park Lane	3,000	Whitefield, Greater Manchester
Stourbridge	Stourton Park	3,500 (499 seats)	Stourbridge, West Midlands
Tynedale	Tynedale Park	2,000 (400 seats)	Corbridge, Northumberland
Walsall	Broadway Ground	1,150 (150 stand)	Walsall, West Midlands
Whitchurch	Edgeley Park		Whitchurch, Shropshire

Final league table

2000–01 National Division Three North Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Points
1	Stourbridge (C)	25	21	1	3	861	368	493	43
2	Sedgley Park (P)	25	21	0	4	887	327	560	42
3	New Brighton	24	19	0	5	668	336	332	38
4	Doncaster	23	16	0	7	579	352	227	32
5	Nuneaton	26	15	1	10	597	605	-8	31
6	Dudley Kingswinford	24	11	1	12	485	519	-34	23
7	Liverpool St Helens	25	10	0	15	511	666	-155	20
8	Bedford Athletic	24	8	0	16	386	613	-227	16
9	Morley	25	8	0	17	468	720	-252	16
10	Whitchurch	21	8	0	13	357	636	-279	16
11	Walsall (R)[b 1]	24	7	0	17	533	601	-68	14
12	Sandal	24	7	0	17	542	868	-326	14
13	Tynedale	18	6	1	11	282	311	-29	13
14	Aspatria (R)	18	4	0	14	307	541	-234	6
Reference englandrugby.com: Updated 26-05-2001

Results

Be aware that some of the early season scores from Rugby Statbunker may be incorrect (possibly due to an automatic scoring system used on that website) as they are different from those reported in the Telegraph. I have used references from the Telegraph wherever possible which should tie in with the results from the England rugby website.

Round 1

^[9]

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Round 2

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 23 September 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 23 September 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 23 September 2000.

^[10]

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Round 3

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 October 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

^[11]

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Round 2 & 3 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 10 September 2000.

• Game brought forward from 10 February 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 10 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 10 September 2000.

^[12]

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Round 4

^[13]

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Round 5

^[14]

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Round 3 (rescheduled game)

• Game rescheduled from 16 September 2000.

^[15]

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Round 6

^[16]

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Round 7

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

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Round 8

^[17]

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Round 9

^[18]

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Round 10

^[19]

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Round 11

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

^[20]

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Round 12

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

^[21]

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Round 13

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

^[22]

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Round 14

^[23]

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Round 15

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to ?.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

^[24]

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Round 16

^[25]

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Round 17

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 7 April 2001.

^[26]

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Round 18

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 7 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Game initially postponed but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

^[27]

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Round 19

^[28]

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Rounds 3, 7, 11 & 15 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 4 November 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 16 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 4 November 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 2 December 2000.

^[29]

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Round 20

• Game brought forward to 23 September 2000.

• Game initially postponed but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Aspatria's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game initially postponed but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

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Rounds 12, 13 & 18 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 9 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 9 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 16 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 9 December 2000.

^[30]

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Round 21

^[31]

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Rounds 13, 15 & 18 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 16 December 2000.

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 but would be postponed again until 28 April 2001.

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 but would be postponed again until 28 April 2001.

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 but would be postponed again until 14 April 2001.

• Game initially rescheduled from 20 January 2001 but would be ultimately cancelled due to fixture congestion.

^[32]

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Round 22

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 May 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 May 2001.

^[33]

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Round 23

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to ?.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 April 2001.

• Game initially postponed but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 April 2001.

^[34]

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Round 24

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 May 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 May 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 May 2001.

^[35]

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Round 25

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 26 May 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 26 May 2001.

^[36]

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Rounds 15, 17 & 18 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2001.

• Game initially postponed but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Aspatria's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 but postponed again till 5 May 2001.

^[37]

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Round 26 (includes rescheduled game)

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000, then 3 March 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 May 2001.

• Game initially postponed but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

^[38]

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Rounds 18 & 23 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 7 March 2001.

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Rounds 15 & 23 (rescheduled games)

• Game rescheduled from 17 March 2001.

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 and then 3 March 2001 before finally being cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Aspatria's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 and then 3 March 2001 before finally being cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

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Rounds 22 & 24 & ? (rescheduled games)

• Game initially rescheduled from 30 December 2000 and then again from 7 April 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 14 April 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Aspatria's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game rescheduled from 10 March 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game rescheduled from 24 March 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to fixture congestion.

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Rounds 22 & 24 (rescheduled games)

• Game initially rescheduled from 24 March 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Aspatria's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game initially rescheduled from 24 March 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game initially rescheduled from 10 March 2001 but ultimately cancelled due to fixture congestion.

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Round 25 (rescheduled games)

• Game initially rescheduled from 31 March 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Tynedale's season and leading to them being relegated.

• Game initially rescheduled from 31 March 2001 but would ultimately be cancelled due to foot & mouth crisis in northern England cutting short Aspatria's season and leading to them being relegated.

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Promotion play-off

The league runners up of National Division Three North and South would meet in a playoff game for promotion to National Division Two. Sedgley Park were runners-up in the north and because they had a better league record than south runners-up, Launceston, they hosted the play-off match.

^[5]

Total season attendances

• Not including promotion playoff game.

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Aspatria	5[a 2]	725	145	200	100
Bedford Athletic	6[a 3]	1,450	242	400	150	48%
Doncaster	9[a 4]	6,215	691	900	265	22%
Dudley Kingswinford	10[a 5]	5,500	550	1,500	250
Liverpool St Helens	9[a 6]	1,900	211	250	150
Morley	6[a 7]	2,200	367	450	250
New Brighton	8[a 8]	2,650	331	600	200	17%
Nuneaton	5[a 9]	1,050	210	250	150	5%
Sandal	4[a 10]	700	233	250	200
Sedgley Park	11[a 11]	5,020	456	1,200	200	15%
Stourbridge	13	6,950	535	1,500	200	15%
Tynedale	4[a 12]	850	213	250	200	11%
Walsall	7[a 13]	2,345	335	500	200	29%
Whitchurch	8[a 14]	3,310	414	540	300

Individual statistics

• Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.

Season records

See also

• English Rugby Union Leagues
• English rugby union system
• Rugby union in England

References

External links

• NCA Rugby Archived 2015-07-01 at the Wayback Machine