Wilson's World: North-East women's sport is a success story that deserves celebration

Women’s sport in the region has never been in better shape. The hope is that over the course of the next couple of years, more people will take notice and embrace the strides that have been made to grow and promote female sport in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Take football for example. Our men’s sides might be struggling, although Sunderland could yet get to Wembley and Middlesbrough will hopefully end the season celebrating promotion, but Sunderland Ladies go from strength to strength and are about to celebrate their first season in the top-flight of the Women’s Super League.

Durham Women are well established in WSL 2, female participation levels are up across the region and a host of girls clubs have sprung up in the last year or so to absorb the growing demand.

Oh, and did I mention the fact that the England captain, and probably the most recognisable female footballer in the country, is Steph Houghton, a former Sunderland player who is fiercely proud of her South Hetton roots, and of the fact that she could well be joined by six other North-Easterners in the squad that is set to compete in this summer’s World Cup finals.

In cricket, we’ve got Danielle Hazell, born and bred in Durham and an integral member of the England side that won the World Twenty20 in 2009. At grassroots level, girls cricket is another sport that is thriving with a number of local clubs having opened up female-only sections in the last two or three years.

In the Olympic sphere, Kat Copeland will be attempting to defend her gold medal from London 2012 when she competes in the lightweight double at the Rio rowing regatta in 2016, with fellow Northerners Jess Eddie, Tina Stiller and Zoe Lee all set to join her in the team.

Laura Weightman, a Morpeth Harrier, is rapidly establishing herself as one of the leading middle-distance runners in the world after winning a Commonwealth Games silver medal last summer, Kat Driscoll, of West Rainton, was fourth at last year’s World Trampoline Championships, Aimee Willmott and Sophie Taylor, of Middlesbrough and Harrogate respectively, won multiple Commonwealth medals while Savannah Marshall, of Hartlepool, claimed boxing gold in Glasgow.

If the region was achieving similar success in the men’s sphere, the triumphs would be cheered from the rooftops. There is a certain degree of respect for our female stars, but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that their achievements do not get anything like the recognition they deserve.

I was thinking of that when I spoke to the new England Women’s rugby captain, Tamara Taylor, earlier this week. Taylor, a second row with Darlington Mowden Sharks, has replaced Katy McLean, a fly-half with Darlington Mowden Sharks, ahead of this weekend’s opening fixture in the Women’s Six Nations.

That’s one Darlington player replacing another at the head of an England team that were crowned world champions as recently as August when they beat Canada in the World Cup final.

Taylor’s story is a remarkable one. Born in Exeter and raised in Africa for seven years, she moved to the North-East a decade and a half ago when she began a university course in Newcastle.

A qualified biomedical scientist, she could be making a fortune working in the private medical sphere. Instead, she is a community coach for the RFU, helping to introduce North-East boys and girls to the game while also skippering her country on the biggest stage of all.

McLean is unlikely to be involved in the Six Nations as she has been awarded a professional contract ahead of rugby sevens making its Olympic debut in Rio next summer.

As a lock forward, Taylor’s skills do not transfer particularly well to the sevens environment, so she finds herself leading the 15-woman code while McLean travels the world on the sevens tour, attempting to qualify for Rio.

Bitter? Not a bit of it. “I’m just so pleased to be part of English rugby at such a hugely exciting time for the game,” said Taylor, ahead of Sunday’s Six Nations opener in Wales.

“It’s fantastic that some of the girls like Katy have been able to turn professional and it’s going to be massive for women’s rugby to be part of the Olympic programme in 2016.

“The flip side of that is that there’s been some big changes to the England squad ahead of the Six Nations, but it’s really exciting to be leading a new team into a championship that’s seen its profile rocket in the last few years.

“I still have to pinch myself when I think about starting this weekend’s game as England captain. It’s such a massive honour, especially when you’re talking about a side that are champions of the world.”

Houghton, someone who still drops everything on her calendar to attend our Local Heroes Awards every December, made similar comments when we chatted at the end of last year. She was proud to be England captain, proud to have played in front of 45,000 people at Wembley and proud to be a role model for girls right across her native North-East.

But you also got the impression she didn’t really have a clue just how big she had become or just how star-struck some of the youngsters in the audience were to have met her.

That’s massively endearing, and is something women’s sport shouldn’t lose as it continues to grow. I’ve spoken to reserve players at all three of the region’s leading male football teams who clearly thought they were far more important and less worthy of my time than an England captain preparing for a World Cup finals.

But it’s also a little bit sad that two of the North-East’s biggest sporting success stories, who captain the national side in the two biggest team sports in the country, are happy to remain in the shadows. Their achievements merit far more celebration than that.