There is a rumour that, a year after their brother Tom left Celyn to join the all conquering Highlanders, that the Simkin sisters, Ruth and Sarah, are going to leave Kent (who they left Celyn for when Tom left for Highlanders) to join Pennine. If so, it would be indeed be a interesting move, following in the footsteps of their former Kent team mate Tessa Newton (though it is not known if she has had any influence on this deal).

Kent have strengthened their A grade team this year with the arrival of, potentially, three top class Australian men but one would think that Ruth and Sarah would both still be included in their strongest team. Sarah has just returned from World Cup duty with the UK, (where they ended second and she played exceptionally well) and Ruth is also a regular in the UK ladies team (indeed, she was picked as first reserve for the World cup team but had to withdraw due to injury).

Ruth normally plays a number one and had a brilliant season in that position last year while Sarah normally plays a two or a three. With this in mind Pennine could be looking to field the following team, Sam Sics and Ruth Simkin as 1’s, Joel Sics and Rhianydd Lee-Jones as 2’s and finally Sarah Simkin and Tessa Newton as 3’s.

This would strengthen Pennine’s team greatly, as they were otherwise looking to field a very young A grade side (with only really Sam Sics having over a year’s A grade experience). Honestly, it seems unlikely that this team will challenge teams like the Highlanders, Arden and the newly formed Crusaders but it will be interesting to see how it rates against the other A grade teams such as Kent, the Welsh Dragons and the Pendle Wildcats (though of course both Kent and the Dragons have brought in Australians to strengthen their teams and therefore are, as yet, slightly unknown quantities).