Latest news with #RockcliffRugbyClub
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Rugby club's ball washes up nearly 500 miles away
A rugby ball, last seen on a beach in north-east England, has been found washed up on a beach nearly 500 miles away!Rockcliff Rugby Club left the ball in a toy bin at Longsands Beach to encourage more people to play the the club were shocked when a German family contacted them to let them know they had found the ball while on holiday in Denmark, about 470 miles had spotted the ball floating in the water during a fishing trip. What happened? Two of the club's young players, placed the ball in the toy bin on 15 June so that families could play with it while at the seaside. However, just over a month later it had managed to travel hundreds of miles across the North Sea and was found in Denmark by Bernd Terbeek and his son, who were on a fishing Terbeek decided to email the club to tell them of his family's discovery and said they planned to use it to play rugby later that added that his family planned to keep the ball and would continue to check on the club's activities in the future.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Rockcliffe Rugby Club's ball floats hundreds of miles to Denmark
A rugby club has made a new international connection after one its balls travelled hundreds of miles before washing up in Rugby Club in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, was contacted by a German family who found the ball while on holiday in Lønstrup, about 470 miles (756km) club's chair, Andrew Sugden, said the used training ball had originally been left on Longsands Beach so families could play with it while at the coast."Clearly, on this occasion somebody's chosen to hoof it into the sea, which we'd rather they didn't do, but it's made a great story," he said. Rockcliff Rugby Club left the ball in a toy bin at Longsands Beach to encourage more people to play the of the club's young players, Benjamin and Alexander, placed the ball in the bin on 15 June and in just over a month it had travelled hundreds of miles across the North was found by Bernd Terbeek and his son, who spotted it floating in the water when they went fishing. Mr Terbeek then emailed the club to tell them of his family's discovery and said they planned to use it to play rugby later that day."My son Hauke saw it drifting in the waves and I picked it up," he said."Later on we checked for Whitley Bay Rockcliff and the rugby club and were surprised about the distance the ball had managed to drift across the North Sea, from the British to the Danish coast."Mr Terbeek said his family planned to keep the ball as a memento and would continue to check on the club's activities in the future. Rockcliffe Rugby Club has about 650 players, including its adult teams, youth teams, and walking rugby teams for senior Mr Sugden said the club's main ambition was to continue to get more people involved in the sport."You need teams to play against and you constantly need people who just enjoy the sport, whether that be touch rugby or playing rugby," he said."We are always happy to welcome new players or even just people who want to enjoy the atmosphere of rugby club and the game." Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Independent
10-02-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Teen has leg amputated after lump from rugby tackle turns out to be cancer
A teen who lost his leg when a lump that formed after a rugby tackle turned out to be cancer said he has learned to 'stay positive' despite his ordeal. Oliver Liddle, 19, had his leg amputated after finding aggressive bone cancer in his leg. Mr Liddle, a gym instructor from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, enjoyed playing sport throughout his childhood - but aged 12 a tackle on the rugby pitch left him with a pain in his leg. The pain didn't go away for a week - and then a lump on his knee began to appear. Mr Liddle, who lives with his father, Steve, 49, stepmother Abby, 42, brother Max, 22, and stepbrother Louis, 10, said he originally thought he could 'run it off.' However, he was later diagnosed with bone cancer and embarked on a nine-month course of chemotherapy. Mr Liddle was then given two options. Remove the cancer with reconstructive surgery which would stunt his growth or amputation. He bravely chose the latter. But he remained determined to run again and return to the sports he loves. After working hard to regain strength and muscle at the gym, Mr Liddle won gold at the British Championships of Para Powerlifting in 2021 at the age of 16 before going on to secure bronze at the World Championships in Georgia the same year. Now, in a bid to mentor other young people who have lost a limb during their return to sports, Mr Liddle has become a qualified gym instructor and launched his own fitness business, named Unlimbited, in 2023. 'Never give up, that's something I've always told myself no matter how hard it gets,' he told PA Real Life. 'No matter what life throws at you, stay positive, stay determined and don't let it get you down too much.' Mr Liddle also spoke about his mother, Kerrie, who died from breast cancer aged 42 when he was just seven years old. 'She's a massive motivation to me now, everything I do is in respect for her and I want to honour her memory,' he said. Mr Liddle was playing a match with his local team, Rockcliff Rugby Club, when he first felt the pain in his leg. 'I landed on my right knee, I thought, 'I'll just run it off', but it didn't go away,' he said. 'I noticed there was a lump starting to form as well.' Mr Liddle was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his right leg, saying the 'aggressive' cancer was at the top of his tibia and fibula where it later spread towards his lower leg and knee. Upon receiving his diagnosis, Liddle said he thought 'why would this happen?'. 'We had already been hit with a curve ball with my mum passing, I thought why should I get this now?' he said. He pressed on with treatment however, undergoing a nine-month course of intensive chemotherapy – but after the first four months, he was presented with a decision to save his life. 'The cancer was very aggressive, my consultants told me that they needed to act fast to either get rid of the limb or extract the cancer,' he said. The first option was an above-the-knee amputation, and the second was an operation to remove the cancer from his leg followed by reconstructive surgery to place a metal pin in his knee, which would stunt his growth. 'I would be stuck at five foot nothing for forever,' he said. 'The only positive from it would be that it would salvage the leg.' At the age of 13, Mr Liddle decided to opt for amputation and he spent a few days in the intensive care unit before being sent home to rest. 'It was weird looking at myself in the mirror, I got some phantom pain but otherwise I was in high spirits as the cancer was gone,' he said. He continued the rest of his chemotherapy treatment and he was given the all-clear in February 2019. On his inspirational journey, Mr Liddle said: 'I wanted to be that person who can say to others, 'it's not the end, you can still train, you can still focus on your goals, you can keep going'.'
