Bracknell Rugby Football Club Diamond Regeneration Project 1955 - 2015 Pitch and Facility Redevelopment in Preparation for RWC 2015 Picture the s
Bracknell Rugby Football Club
Diamond Regeneration Project
1955 - 2015
Pitch and Facility Redevelopment
in Preparation for RWC 2015
Picture the scene back in 1955 ... a bunch of Welshman and a bloke from Cornwall sat pining for a spot of rugby while surrounded by football playing London overspillers in a post-war newtown.
There was no sport on the telly then, there were hardly any tellies! So, these spirited pioneers, missionaries almost, decided to set up their own club: and BRFC was born!
Bracknell Rugby Club's first changing rooms were near the old brickworks on Eastern Road. The local deep clay soil was particularly suited to brick production and that soil was to come back and haunt BRFC in later life.
In 1972, work started on a brand new clubhouse and bar at the current Lily Hill site where BRFC's only pitch was already located. The shower block and changing rooms stood to the east of where the current second pitch is located, in a disused cattle pen!
As player numbers grew, the club was able to extend its facilities at Lily Hill in 1980, 1989 and again in 2001 when the Pitch-1 stand was erected and a pathway was constructed around the pitch. But player facilities and ground quality were being outstripped and exposed as inadequate for a club which has grown to the point were it now offers quality rugby to around 650 players aged from five to 55, including four senior men's teams, a veterans' side, a flourishing Ladies squad and a Colts Academy which nurtures up to 40 under 18s and under 17s, the life-blood of a healthy senior club.
BRFC's mini and junior sections have grown to the point where the pitches and facilities have been stretched to breaking point. By the time England won the World Cup in 2003, there were hundreds of nippers running amok in the muck at Lily Hill on a Sunday morning. One famous product of this vibrant youth section was no less a player than former England captain Lewis Moody who played at Lily Hill from his fifth to his twelfth year.
From the First XV down to each junior age group (most of which field two, even three, teams) Bracknell has emerged as Berkshire's premier rugby club. This is possible due to a small army of volunteer coaches, managers, referees, first-aiders and even drivers, all of whom help provide quality sport for the community at minimal cost to the community.
But now, as BRFC looks forward to its Diamond Jubilee and to a home World Cup in 2015, and with rugby's return to the Olympics the following year in Brazil, the challenge is to provide facilities and pitches worthy of the club's achievements on the field of play.
Let's be clear, BRFC is a community sports club which is not run for profit. We have assets but we are cash poor and there is no "war chest" to fund the improvements that are needed. Any end-of-year profits are ploughed back into the running of the club.
But the BRFC's committee has not been sitting on their hands in recent years.
Thanks to a combination of grants from Sport England, the Rugby Football Union, and Bracknell Forest Council, plus internal club fund-raising, the members' toilets, both male and female have been totally revamped and extended; the front entrance hall has been spruced up; the showering and changing facilities for both players and match officials have been renovated throughout in a project costing more than £70,000; an access ramp for wheelchairs and buggies has been built; partial drainage work has been carried out Pitch 1; a stairway to the London Road exit was constructed; and an accessible toilet with baby-changing facility was added.
This year, using the same combination of grants and internal fund-raising, BRFC aims to renovate the clubhouse veranda and embark on a £20,000 project to give the club hall a total makeover. Half this money will come in the form of a matched-grant from the RFU and the club has also applied to Bracknell Town Council for help here, given the lack of hireable social hall space within the borough.
BRFC's voluntary officers are also busy applying for grants to improve the drainage on those heavy clay Pitches 2 and 3! The RFU is riding to the rescue once again regarding Pitch 3 with a likely grant for drainage in excess of £30,000 - the only problem is that BRFC has to match the grant £-for-£. But, put another way, we have a target of £30,000 and, if we hit it, the RFU will stump up £1 for every £1 we raise!
The Rugby Football Union has also contributed the bulk of the cost of a £16,000 project to improve and strengthen the floodlighting on Pitch 2, which will also increase the scope for midweek training on Pitch 3.
For efficient drainage to Pitch 2 BRFC is looking to a grant of National Lottery money from Sport England as well as help from the landowners, Bracknell Forest Council. The Council has now discussed the project and has given its backing in principle. There are only six non-school rugby pitches in its area of responsibility and half of those are at Lily Hill Park!
So plenty of support has been offered and significant financial help is being discussed as you read this. BUT WE ARE ALSO GOING TO HAVE TO HELP OURSELVES.
A fund-raising committee has been set up to form a strategy and produce money-making ideas and it has already started work. Local businesses are being approached with the offer of getting aboard and individual members will be asked to donate.
If all these improvements are to happen BRFC will have to raise a minimum of £50,000 and that's if all those grant ships come home!
It's a daunting task but one that the club's members, players, and players' families are more than able of rising to.
As BRFC heads towards its 60th birthday party, it's worth recalling the spirit and commitment of those early pioneers and it's worth asking if they could envisage that they would leave such a fine legacy to future generations long after they were gone. We face a similar challenge today to help build something that will be here long after we have gone.
Your club needs you ... and this town needs this club!
