Newcastle Ravens: At Home and in Rome
Life with Newcastle-upon-Tyne's inclusive rugby team the Ravens. We speak to members of the club as they head to Rome for a huge tournament.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Oh Jesus!
00:04Roam's off.
00:06Scott charged us.
00:10I've never seen a man more happy in my life.
00:16Kelvin, be gentle, Scott's just broken.
00:18Do you want me to go on the back?
00:20No, it's fine, no worries.
00:22My work colleagues, probably if they were like five years back,
00:26would never have thought I would play a contact spot.
00:28I was probably the shy, timid one in the corner.
00:30Never played rugby before, never picked up a rugby ball,
00:33didn't know the rules, didn't watch it, anything.
00:35Before joining the Ravens, my social life was pretty much non-existent.
00:39I used to go to work, go to sleep, go to work, go to sleep.
00:42But it's like a pre-made family of friends that I'm now going out with all the time,
00:47doing things with that I never thought I'd do.
00:49In the Ravens, you are defined by who you are and what you are.
00:57We have like a summer season meal,
00:59which sort of coincides with the start of the touch season,
01:03end of the union season.
01:05So like, touch summer spot, union winter spot.
01:08Obviously we used to call this the end of season meal,
01:10because it was the end of season, but now we're 24-7 club.
01:14And when you list all the achievements the committee have done this year,
01:17I think it's really incredible.
01:19The first award is for most creative Raven,
01:23and that goes to Al Arcelis.
01:33There was moments where it was absolutely incredible.
01:37Moments where I'm thinking, oh my God,
01:40playing internationally for the very first time on a sport that I'm learning still.
01:46Rome was wild. It was really good fun.
01:49It was really hard work.
01:51It was like a holiday, and a rugby tour,
01:55and a sort of timely mates all molded one.
01:58Playing in sort of 25 degree heat was very interesting.
02:03I understand now why rugby is a winter sport.
02:05Everybody came together, working towards the same thing.
02:08Absolutely loved it. Everybody were supportive of each other.
02:12You were well supported when you were stretching off the pitch as well.
02:14I know.
02:15Got all the attention and got to go to hospital in Rome as well.
02:18I tried my Italian.
02:20I think we were against Portland team,
02:23and the team were maybe potentially three times my size.
02:28Something like that, yeah.
02:30Something like that. Tackle after tackle after tackle.
02:33Taking down a few people,
02:36and elbows were aimed at the right position at the right time,
02:42potentially that I think my face was just at the end of it.
02:47So I think it was a fact of safety to make sure everything was okay.
02:51The way we realised you didn't have a fractured eye socket,
02:53you just had a really good bruise, you looked really nasty.
02:55You got lots of attention on the nights after that.
02:58Absolutely. I think it was character building.
03:17It was something that was a very slow burn for me.
03:21At the back end of 2019,
03:24I was actually hanging around with one of the guys that was part of the club,
03:28and he was saying you should join.
03:30I'd spoke about it, I'd been to a few of the monthly pub quizzes that I had.
03:34My name's Chris, but most people call me Bucky in the club anyway,
03:37and I am the club captain and have been for the season,
03:40and I've been around for about just over four years now.
03:42So I was always looking for something new anyway,
03:44but then I kind of forgot about it until the whole lockdown situation happened.
03:48Then I kind of realised that I didn't have that many hobbies.
03:53I thought, you know what, I've never really given a sport a proper go in life.
03:57So I was like, I'm going to go, I'm going to try it.
03:59So the year when we were starting to lift the first time out of lockdown,
04:03and they were still running the boot camp,
04:05that's when I joined, and that's when I joined.
04:07So I haven't looked back since.
04:09I needed something to do.
04:11I wanted to get involved with something, possibly a sport.
04:14Me and a mate went to the tent during Pride in the summer, found the Mount of Pride.
04:18I was just at Northern Pride, just out with friends,
04:22just kind of having a wander and saw this giant inflatable rugby ball that was being thrown about.
04:28So I knew a lot of the guys socially, and then one time at Pride,
04:31I was handing out flyers for the boot camp, and they said,
04:34why don't you do it yourself? And I was like, you're joking.
04:38For some reason, I said yes. I did it. I really enjoyed it.
04:41And then I've been playing for six years.
04:43For me, it was a difficult choice between a nap or attend the first boot camp.
04:49So I basically went to join boot camp, just out of the blue, split decision moment.
04:56I've played rugby in school, but I haven't done it for 15 years.
04:59So thought, give it a go, go to the boot camp, see how it was,
05:02and then really enjoyed it, so stuck around.
05:05Everyone was just so friendly, like Joe, our captain, who was running the boot camp.
05:11He was so sassy, but at the same time really welcoming and really not intimidating.
05:17I'm one of the coaches for the Newcastle Ravens.
05:20I don't remember ever not playing rugby.
05:22I took a break for over 10 years because I got injured, and then came back with the Ravens.
05:27I wouldn't say I was necessarily an unsporty child.
05:32I played a lot of tennis and a lot of badminton, and it was very solo sports.
05:35School wasn't a good time for me anyway.
05:37So when I was trying to get involved in, say, football,
05:41which I never really had a drive to be involved in.
05:45It just sort of felt like I had to fit in that way.
05:47Because of all the experiences I had at school, that kind of fell by the wayside.
05:51And I sort of withdrew quite a lot from a lot of people at that time.
05:55I found that nobody was really encouraging me to go into these sort of team sports arenas.
06:03Or if I did try, it was always met with angst.
06:06It was kind of one of those things that it was like kids kind of sensed who you were
06:11before who you knew you were kind of thing.
06:13And then even teachers didn't necessarily drive me.
06:18So there's a lot of PE sessions where I would just spend on crash mats,
06:22on an old phone, like Bluetoothing music to each other instead of actually doing sport.
06:27So to me, it just felt like sport wasn't even a question anymore.
06:31And I went for a lot of years from school, giving up the tennis and the badminton,
06:35to joining the Revenge.
06:37Often when people kind of start stuff, you worry, am I going to look stupid?
06:43Are they going to think that I'm not good? And things like this.
06:46Straight away, it was kind of everyone was made to feel at ease.
06:50And the boot camp ran for six weeks.
06:54But I knew from the kind of first time, I think I went out the next couple of days
06:59and bought rugby boots and a Canterbury top to kind of have as my training wear, if you will.
07:06You have in your head what a rugby player looks like.
07:09And I do not fit that mold.
07:12And obviously on top of that, being a trans man and stuff like this,
07:16I was like, I know it's kind of open to gay men.
07:20I was like, but is it open to other types of people and things like this?
07:25And no, I was kind of reassured from the offset that I'd be welcome
07:31and it's about having fun and you can kind of take it as seriously as you want to,
07:36which was the big thing.
07:38But I'm a very competitive person.
07:40I was kind of like, right, I need to be really good at this.
07:43Apart from keeping fit, it's just nice to kind of have that brotherhood.
07:47I think when I was a teenager, I didn't really feel that back then.
07:50But now it's a lot more accepted being a gay man inside a gay team.
07:54We've got quite a lot of people who are straight or bisexual that kind of haven't.
08:05You wouldn't put them necessarily in spaces like this.
08:08People always assume that if you're hanging out with a bunch of gay men,
08:13then you must be gay.
08:15I have a wife and things like this, but I kind of fit into it
08:21in the trans bracket sort of thing.
08:23But there's cisgendered straight guys that just,
08:29they love how we put a spin on rugby and they love the openness.
08:36It's just a club like no other and it gives them kind of a safe space
08:43because I think a lot of straight people, cisgendered straight people,
08:46are also tired of the toxic, ultra-masculine,
08:51you've got to be really strong and you've got to be really brave
08:55and you can't say that anything hurts and things like this.
09:00People don't necessarily want to be around that kind of environment.
09:03And it's also, they're allies in the fact that they see nothing wrong
09:08with playing with a bunch of guys who just happen to be gay.
09:12And there is nothing wrong with that,
09:15but obviously we know that that's still something that's stigmatised.
09:21Gay men and straight men can be friends.
09:24It's a very strange concept to me that you couldn't be.
09:29There's a massive social side, obviously,
09:31that people probably see us out all the time.
09:34Yeah, I've made some really good friends and friends that I know
09:39that I'll just know forever, they even be on the club.
09:42Everyone's just been so welcoming
09:44and really made us feel part of the family.
09:47I mean, the club's massive now.
09:50I'm pretty sure we've got like 120 members over the two cohorts
09:54of Touch and Union and then including supporters as well.
09:58It's serious because obviously we play to win, we train hard,
10:03but at the same time, even if everyone doesn't kind of get on,
10:08it's never too serious.
10:10Because obviously with any large group of people,
10:13not everyone's going to see eye to eye on times
10:15and everyone kind of has their moments
10:17where we get on each other's nerves.
10:19But when you're on the pitch, you play as a team
10:22and then afterwards you go out and you celebrate with people
10:26and have that fun.
10:27You might not know everybody in depth,
10:30but you do make like your close friends within the club as well.
10:34It was started in 2006,
10:36really small grassroots kind of idea, really.
10:42We were one of the first IGR clubs in the UK.
10:47Obviously it's called Newcastle Ravens
10:49because we're based in Newcastle,
10:51but our next closest clubs are Thevens in Edinburgh
10:55and then York and Leeds, York Templar and Leeds.
11:00I forgot what Leeds are called.
11:02Sorry, Leeds.
11:03So, you know, it's like an hour and a half
11:05in either direction before you get into any other clubs.
11:07So we have quite a big area that we cover.
11:10As a rugby club, being not even 20 years old
11:13is so, so young for a club.
11:15We founded Hadrian Cup.
11:18Hey, welcome to Percypoke RSC.
11:20This is Newcastle Ravens Hadrian Cup 2024
11:23and it's an absolutely fabulous day.
11:25When it started it was four teams
11:29and since then it's the last one that's just been was 36 teams.
11:33It's five weeks today that we'll be flying over
11:37to partake in what is our World Cup
11:40and to be able to meet like-minded people
11:43and like-minded players from New Zealand,
11:46America, all over Europe.
11:48It's just an unreal experience
11:50and one that I am so excited to share with people
11:54that I didn't know a couple of years ago.
12:06The reason it was really special
12:07was actually my first ever holiday.
12:09Especially it was quite great that it was like
12:11a lads holiday with the rugby lot.
12:13So it was great.
12:16I'm secretly, not so secretly, a massive nerd.
12:19So a lot of the guys, like me and my friends,
12:21we'd meet up and play D&D and hang out in the house
12:23rather than go out.
12:24So I'm actually getting out a lot more
12:26with the Ravens than I would normally.
12:28It's not just like an hour or two of rugby
12:30and then you won't see each other for the next week.
12:32It was great because it was like full five days
12:34of hanging out, watching some rugby,
12:36playing by the pool, just enjoying the sun.
12:39So fancy dress.
12:40Yeah, it was Disney themed.
12:42I think with fancy dress, I either make no effort
12:44or I go all in.
12:46So I was a slutty Cheshire cat
12:48which I wore around the hotel
12:51for the little parade, the fashion show.
12:53As soon as that was over, I took it off
12:55and I went and just gave my CV to this town
12:57because I went down.
12:59Whereas I was dressed up as Aladdin
13:01and I was really geared to seeking a whole new world
13:03along the way.
13:06I don't think it really worked out
13:08because I might find that I tend to be monotone
13:10when I sing. I don't know.
13:12Did you get your magic carpet right?
13:14Maybe at one point.
13:18Nice load of questions.
13:19So when I'm not playing rugby,
13:20I work during the week at a bank
13:22and then on weekends in a hotel.
13:25So my life can get quite busy at times.
13:28I generally work all week.
13:31So rugby is a little bit of an escape for me as well.
13:33I've been given permission to be away
13:35from the kids for a week and play rugby.
13:37So what's not to like?
13:40Great first time.
13:42I'm quite excited for...
13:44there might be a union one next year.
13:46They've said it might be in Oslo.
13:48So quite looking forward to that one.
13:50And then whenever the Bingham Cup comes again,
13:52definitely be going for it.
13:53Still, even now,
13:55if someone is gay in a professional sport,
13:58it's still headline news.
14:00And we've got 6,000 IGR players
14:04who are all going to Bingham
14:06to play rugby.
14:08And I think that that's just
14:11an amazing experience.
14:12It's not often you can say,
14:14I went abroad to play
14:16like an international tournament
14:17and things like this
14:18and have those opportunities,
14:20especially for minority people
14:23and queer people that feel
14:24that they don't necessarily belong in sport.
14:28So I'm one of the main sponsors
14:30for the Bingham Cup.
14:32We are Bespoke Financial Wellbeing
14:34and we specialise in rugby insurance,
14:37accident cover, income protection,
14:39private health care.
14:40So we invest a lot of...
14:43we sponsor a lot of the lads and the team
14:46and we also give back to them
14:48by sponsoring the Hadrian Cup
14:50and then now the Bingham Cup.
14:51I first come to be a sponsor
14:53because I was...
14:55a friend of a friend told me about it.
14:57Me, I grew up in rural Northumberland
15:01and I was...
15:02I've been a gay man all my life
15:04and I thought it was amazing
15:06how a community comes together
15:07outside of just going out.
15:10When I met a lot of the lads,
15:11they've got such a good community,
15:12lovely, friendly.
15:15And I really wanted to support
15:17something that I really believed in.
15:18The main thing I like about it is
15:20it's inclusive for everyone.
15:22No matter who you are,
15:23what you are,
15:24it doesn't matter
15:25and everyone kind of accepts everyone,
15:28which I think growing up
15:30it was very hard for most people
15:32in the same scene as me,
15:34so that's what I love about it.
15:36When I joined,
15:37there was a lot of social distancing rules
15:40still in place
15:41and so the club was operating
15:45in a different type of rugby,
15:46so it was like touch rugby,
15:48which we still run today,
15:50but from what I saw from the committee
15:53and the current chair at the time,
15:54they really wanted to keep this
15:58team spirit
16:00and try and get as many people
16:02playing the sport as possible,
16:04so making rugby accessible
16:06during those times.
16:08And I was like,
16:09I want to be a part of this.
16:12And I always knew I wanted to go
16:14into full contact rugby eventually
16:16because I wanted to challenge myself
16:17with something.
16:19And it just gradually progressed from there,
16:22but the key moment was
16:23within a few weeks,
16:24noticing how much work goes into
16:28keeping the club going
16:29during really difficult times,
16:32and that was the moment for me.
16:34I think that was definitely that time.
16:37I mean, I don't miss training now.
16:39There's some days where
16:40I'll be working down in York
16:41and I'll peg two hours back up the road
16:43to try and make sure I'm here
16:44for training every time,
16:45so yeah, it's massive.
16:48I went for a committee run,
16:49so I didn't quite get it,
16:50but I want to be really involved
16:53and try and commit more
16:55and give back to the club
16:56because it's just been
16:57such a great experience for me.
16:58If you've got a skill set
17:00that you think could be put to good use,
17:01then obviously we're not a club
17:04that makes loads of money and stuff.
17:07We keep our prices extremely affordable
17:12for, again, the accessibility side of things
17:16and to allow more people
17:17to have those experiences.
17:19So we can't pay someone
17:22to do all this fancy stuff,
17:24so we do it ourselves.
17:26We look after our own club
17:27and our own players,
17:29and it works really well
17:31because the people in the club
17:32care about the club.
17:34You can see that all the new people
17:35who are joining the club
17:36want to get involved with doing more
17:38and trying to give back to the group.
17:40I found that I had a certain skill set
17:42from work that I could bring,
17:45so when it came to sourcing new kits,
17:49I was able to get it heavily discounted
17:52to what we weren't getting before
17:54and just getting good deals
17:58and different things like this,
18:00or barring when we've been
18:02to Pride events,
18:04I've got them at lower price
18:07and things like this,
18:08which I probably shouldn't say.
18:10But for me,
18:15the cheaper I could make things
18:18for the club,
18:19means that the club has money
18:21to then put the money to the players
18:23and the social events,
18:25and if people can't afford a rugby top,
18:28one will be provided for you
18:30and things like this.
18:31I was lucky enough to get voted
18:33Spirit of the Ravens,
18:35so it's basically a ward
18:37that is said to go to somebody
18:39that encompasses the values of the club
18:43and puts them up
18:44or puts their all into the club.
18:46I mean, I was blown away.
18:47Just before I actually got that,
18:49the new chair at the time, Matt,
18:51asked me if I wanted to stay
18:52on as club captain
18:53and just be that sort of impartial person
18:56that people could come and speak to.
18:59And I do feel like
19:01I want everyone to have the same experience
19:03that I did.
19:04That's why I went into membership
19:07for the club,
19:08because I wanted people
19:09to have this same experience
19:11that I had had.
19:12There's people in here
19:13that I would never have met
19:16or come into contact with
19:19because their work is so different
19:22or their interests outside of rugby
19:25are so different
19:26and things like this.
19:27So I felt like I got a lot more involved
19:30in the sense of
19:32trying to do the best by everybody.
19:34It's almost like none of us
19:35have got anything in common
19:36apart from rugby,
19:37but on that,
19:39we are able to be best friends
19:42on and off the pitch.
19:44And to me,
19:45that's kind of the power of team sport.
19:47Especially this year,
19:49being off committee
19:50but working as club captain,
19:52it's just being somebody
19:53that I can listen to people
19:55and it does take up a lot of time
20:00but in the best way possible
20:02because you just know
20:03that you're helping people
20:04and helping people find a safe space,
20:06which is what this club's all about.
20:08But it's also like having
20:09a second job sometimes.
20:11We've got safeguarders,
20:14we've got first aiders,
20:16we've got match officials
20:22and yeah,
20:23so there's kind of multiple layers.
20:24You can be just one
20:26or you can be multiple.
20:28We do have some social only members
20:30and we do have a couple of lads
20:31that come train every now and again
20:33and don't play games and stuff
20:34but most of the lads,
20:35it's both.
20:37How are you doing this morning?
20:39A present from the team,
20:40by the way.
20:41Where's the moochies?
20:42Didn't work.
20:44Jordan played fantastic
20:46throughout the tournament,
20:47kept his hairs
20:48and did some fantastic kicks.
20:50Way back when,
20:52I played football at school
20:54as most people do
20:56but I'd never really been
20:58a sporty person.
20:59I'd always been introverted,
21:02mostly PC and PlayStation games
21:05in my spare time.
21:07Just quite nerdy really
21:09so it's kind of a bit chalk and cheese
21:11as to what my interests were before
21:14to what they are now.
21:15I love rugby,
21:17always have done
21:18and now that I'm back playing
21:19that just has a huge positive impact
21:21on my general mental health
21:23which then feeds into
21:24a happier person,
21:26better at work,
21:27all that kind of stuff.
21:28It's definitely allowed me
21:29to have more fun
21:30and that kind of stuff.
21:31It's definitely allowed me
21:32to have more confidence
21:33because I'm speaking about stuff
21:35that I don't,
21:36I've not,
21:37there's people who've played rugby
21:38since the age of seven.
21:40I've played since the age of 25, 26
21:45and it's having that confidence
21:48to talk about something
21:49that's not a life-long skill
21:51and I sometimes find that at work
21:52if I'm having to learn something
21:55and then relay that to people.
21:59It's definitely given me
22:00the confidence to do that.
22:02It was more of a case
22:03of the mental barrier
22:06that I was able to get over
22:08to then start enjoying those things
22:10instead of feeling like
22:11I just had to stick to
22:13one kind of hobby.
22:15My wife has always said
22:17when I transitioned
22:19she got to fall in love with me
22:21all over again
22:22because I became this confident,
22:26outspoken guy
22:28whereas before I was quite reserved
22:29and quite mousy
22:32and now obviously I play a position
22:34that requires me to shout
22:35at everyone on the field
22:36and it's just once upon a time
22:39I couldn't have even thought
22:40about doing something like that
22:41but they bring on your confidence
22:43so much that you're able
22:45to just grow in yourself
22:47and I've seen that with boot campers
22:49who have joined since I've been here.
22:52People that came and like
22:54you didn't know their name
22:55until the fourth week
22:57because they were so quiet
22:59and now they're just like
23:00growing in confidence.
23:02Where you go from being
23:03kind of meek and mild
23:05and always wondering what if
23:10to being able to do
23:11what you want, feel included
23:14and not feel like a token
23:17or a tick box.
23:18You're defined by your hard work
23:21and showing up for your friends
23:23and doing what you can.
23:25In the Ravens you are defined by
23:29who you are, not what you are.