NEWCASTLE THUNDER will induct another member into their Hall of Fame next month.
Outside back Joe Brown, halfback or hooker Ryan Clarke and second rower Rhys Clarke have been recognised since the project was launched in September 2022.
Jamaica international Brown is the club’s record appearance-maker, with 234 appearances across two spells (2005-2006 then 2010-2021.
Ryan Clarke played for eight seasons before hanging up his boots in 2013.
Rhys Clarke (above) had three separate spells with Thunder in a career which ran from 2009 to 2023 and he holds the club record for goals kicked in a single game – twelve in the 88-6 win over Coventry at Kingston Park in 2019.
That season Simon Finnigan’s team made the League One play-off final but lost out at Oldham, where Finnigan is now assistant coach to Alan Kilshaw.
While the current club was formed as Gateshead Thunder in 2000 as a phoenix of the Super League side of that name who, after their sole season of 1999, merged with Hull FC, Rugby League has a far longer history in the north-east, with South Shields existing from 1901 to 1904 and a first Newcastle club from 1936 to 1938.
The Hall of Fame event is on Wednesday, May 27.