2002–03 National Division Three North

2002–03 National Division Three North
Countries	England
Champions	Nuneaton
Runners-up	New Brighton
Relegated	Scunthorpe, Hull Ionians, Broadstreet, Bedford Athletic
Attendance	N/A[a 1]
Top point scorer	Tony Handley (Waterloo) 293 points
Top try scorer	Jody Peacock (Nuneaton) Gary Marshall (Nuneaton) 21 tries
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

The 2002–03 National Division Three North was the third season (fifteenth 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 Preston Grasshoppers and Waterloo who were relegated from the 2001–02 National Division Two while promoted teams included Broadstreet who came up as champions of Midlands Division 1 while Halifax (champions) and Hull Ionians (playoffs) came up from North Division 1.^[1][2][3] 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.

By the end of the season Nuneaton would finish as champions, just edging out runners up New Brighton by virtue of an extra win and gaining promotion to the 2003–04 National Division Two.^[4] New Brighton would go into a promotion playoff away at the 2002–03 National Division Three South runners up Lydney but were unable to join Nuneaton as Lydney won 21 - 7 to claim the final promotion slot.^[5] At the other end of the table, Scunthorpe were the first team to be relegated with just one win all season while Hull Ionians, Broadstreet and Bedford Athletic were the other teams to go down at a later date with Bedford Athletic just one point off safety.^[4] Hull Ionians would drop to North Division 1 while Scunthorpe, Broadstreet and Bedford Athletic would drop to Midlands Division 1.^[6][7]

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bedford Athletic	Putnoe Woods	500	Bedford, Bedfordshire
Blaydon	Crow Trees	2,000 (400 seats)	Swalwell, Tyne and Wear
Broadstreet	Ivor Preece Field	1,500 (250 seats)	Coventry, West Midlands
Darlington Mowden Park	Yiewsley Drive		Darlington, County Durham
Dudley Kingswinford	Heathbrook	2,260	Kingswinford, Dudley, West Midlands
Halifax	Ovenden Park		Halifax, West Yorkshire
Hull Ionians	Brantingham Park	1,500 (240 seats)	Brantingham, East Riding of Yorkshire
Liverpool St Helens	Moss Lane	3,000[8]	St Helens, Merseyside
New Brighton	Hartsfield	2,000	Wirral, Merseyside
Nuneaton	Liberty Way	4,314 (514 seats)	Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Preston Grasshoppers	Lightfoot Green	5,000	Preston, Lancashire
Scunthorpe	Heslam Park		Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire
Tynedale	Tynedale Park	2,000 (400 seats)	Corbridge, Northumberland
Waterloo	St Anthony's Road	9,000 (200 seats)	Blundellsands, Merseyside

2002–03 National Division Three North table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Nuneaton (C)	26	23	0	3	802	406	+396	46	Promoted
2	New Brighton	26	22	0	4	812	441	+371	44	Promotion play-off
3	Waterloo	26	21	0	5	888	458	+430	42
4	Halifax	26	17	0	9	666	588	+78	34
5	Darlington Mowden Park	26	14	0	12	688	491	+197	28
6	Liverpool St Helens	26	12	1	13	612	574	+38	25
7	Tynedale	26	12	1	13	561	582	−21	25
8	Blaydon	26	12	0	14	568	645	−77	24
9	Preston Grasshoppers	26	11	1	14	617	625	−8	23
10	Dudley Kingswinford	26	10	1	15	502	596	−94	21
11	Bedford Athletic (R)	26	10	0	16	497	625	−128	20	Relegated
12	Broadstreet (R)	26	8	1	17	477	795	−318	17
13	Hull Ionians (R)	26	6	1	19	515	747	−232	13
14	Scunthorpe (R)	26	1	0	25	343	975	−632	2

^[9]

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^[10]

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^[11]

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^[12]

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^[13]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 December 2002.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 December 2002.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 December 2002.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 December 2002.

^[14]

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^[15]

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^[16]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 15 February 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 December 2002.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 15 February 2003.

^[17]

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^[18]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 8 March 2003.

^[19]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 8 March 2003.

^[20]

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^[21]

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^[22]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 22 March 2003.

^[23]

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• Game rescheduled from 19 October 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 9 November 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 19 October 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 19 October 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 19 October 2002.

^[24]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 22 March 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 15 February 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 22 March 2003.

^[25]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 April 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 15 February 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 22 March 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 15 February 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 8 March 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 8 March 2003.

^[26]

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^[27]

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^[28]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 April 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 April 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 April 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 5 April 2003.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 April 2003.

^[29]

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^[30]

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• Game rescheduled from 4 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 9 November 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 9 November 2002.

^[31]

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^[32]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 8 March 2003.

^[33]

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• Game rescheduled from 1 March 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 30 November 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 23 November 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2003.

^[34]

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^[35]

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• Game rescheduled from 4 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 21 December 2002.

• Game rescheduled from 4 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2003.

^[36]

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^[37]

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• Game rescheduled from 1 February 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 1 February 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 1 February 2003.

^[38]

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^[39]

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• Game rescheduled from 1 February 2003.

• Game rescheduled from 1 February 2003.

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

^[5]

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bedford Athletic	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Blaydon	2	250	125	150	100	6%
Broadstreet	0	0	0	0	0
Darlington Mowden Park	0	0	0	0	0
Dudley Kingswinford	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Halifax	0	0	0	0	0
Hull Ionians	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Liverpool St Helens	0	0	0	0	0	0%
New Brighton	1	500	500	500	500	25%
Nuneaton	1	1,200	1,200	1,200	1,200	28%
Preston Grasshoppers	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Scunthorpe	7	2,025	289	450	200
Tynedale	0	0	0	0	0	0%
Waterloo	0	0	0	0	0	0%

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

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

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