Darlington Mowden Park R.F.C.
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| Full name | Darlington Mowden Park Rugby Football Club |
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| Union | Rugby Football Union |
| Founded | 1945 |
| Location | Darlington, England |
| Ground(s) | Northern Echo Arena (Capacity: 25,000) |
| Chairman |
 M.Keeligan
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| Coach(es) |
J.Newton
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| League(s) | National League 1 |
| 2016–17 | 10th |
| Official website | |
| www |
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Darlington Mowden Park RFC are a rugby union club in Darlington, County Durham. They currently play in National League 1, the third level of the RFU's league pyramid. They achieved promotion on 3 May 2014 after beating Ampthill in a promotion play-off, the game went to extra time after finishing 25–25 in normal time. Promotion was confirmed when Zylon McGaffin on his final appearance for the club scored a try in the 3rd-minute of added time. Mowden Park's former name, Darlington Grammar School Old Boys, was changed when they moved to Yiewsley Drive in Mowden. DMP relocated to the Darlington Arena, a 25,000 seat stadium in the town, known as Northern Echo Arena for sponsorship reasons, along with 17 acres of adjacent land and an option on a further 20 acres. They played their first game at the new stadium on 2 February 2013, in front of a crowd of over 1000, comprehensively defeating Bromsgrove 62–7 in a National League 2 North league game.
The club emerged in the post World War 2 period and was constituted in 1950 as Darlington Grammar School Old Boys.
In 1970–71 the Old Boys, with growing numbers of players and supporters, decided to buy land and build their own clubhouse and pitches. Mowden was chosen to be the new official home of the rapidly growing Old Boys club. It was deemed appropriate, not least because the club was no longer an "Old Boys Club", to change its name to Mowden Park RFC.
In the 1990s and 2000s Mowden Park (DMPRFC) experienced great success. Mowden rapidly went through the league system until they reached National Three North (now National league Two North), in which they spent many years. Mowden also had several years of excellent Tetley Bitter Cup runs. The Tetley Bitter Cup, the old LV Cup, included every English Rugby Union club. In 2000, while in the old North East 1, Mowden reached the 5th round (quarter-finals) of the Tetley Bitter cup after beating the prestigious London club Rosslyn Park in the 4th round in front of a home crowd of around 2,000+. In the fifth round they faced premiership opponents in the form of Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop. The following years also saw further adventures in the National Cup. In 2001 Mowden once again defied league position and reached the 4th round of cup, only to narrowly lose to Birmingham & Solihull who, at the time, were in Allied-Dunbar Premiership 2. In 2002 they, once again, managed to get to the 4th round, only to narrowly lose at home to Manchester, who were in the old Allied Dunbar Premiership 2. Mowden 'legends' of this era included the likes of Tuihana, Keeligan, Brown, Lowe, Irwin, Mckinnon, Sinclair, Oliphant, Mitchell, Sanderson, Kent and Mattison.
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