Fakenham Foxes ladies' team took another step towards competitive league rugby by staging their own tournament at the weekend which helped them to gauge their strength against two of the top teams in the league they hope to join.

Fakenham Foxes ladies' team took another step towards competitive league rugby by staging their own tournament at the weekend which helped them to gauge their strength against two of the top teams in the league they hope to join.

The inaugural tournament for the Foxes Ryder Cup attracted the University of East Anglia, Market Deeping and Southwold.

The knock-out competition of seven matches provided half-hour games. In a close- fought final Market Deeping defeated Southwold by a single try, scored in the last minute. Fakenham finished third and the UEA last.

It showed that the Foxes, now in their second year, are continuing to improve and that their aim to move from friendly fixtures to competitive league rugby is getting closer to realisation.

Captain Mandy Warren said: “Our performance showed we have great commitment and that our game is improving week by week. We are nearly ready for league rugby.”

Warren was especially pleased with their match against eventual winners, Market Deeping. “It was our best game. We scored the first try but as a more experienced team they came back to eventually beat us by two tries to one.”

Fakenham rugby club is

25-years-old and president Vince Stewart said he was delighted that the effort being put into the game by Mandy Warren and her team was at last bearing fruit.

“I understand that ladies' rugby is the fast growing sport in the UK at the moment and we are pleased to be at the forefront of that movement. They have great team spirit and the men's section is totally behind their efforts to bring the ladies' game to Fakenham.”

Currently the Foxes have around 20 senior players on their books and an U18 team, the Fox Cubs, which will eventually feed players into the senior team as well.

The club also run mixed-sex sides from the age of U7 to U13. But currently the emphasis is encouraging new senior members to join.

Membership is continuing to climb but it has not been helped by the departure of four members who have recently been posted

abroad on army service and the potential loss of at least two members of the team who go up to university next winter.

“Two more potential players joined us last week and another two are coming along to training to try out the game because of the publicity surrounding this tournament,” said a delighted Warren.