Keswick Rugby Club News

Well as of 23rd March we have the planning permission for floodlights – now we need to raise the money !

Despite the all too well known problems that can develop with the National Park Planners that required a fair bit of arm twisting the planners finally saw the light ! (sorry for the pun !)

The plan is to light the 1st team pitch to match standard (200 Lux) the 2nd team pitch to training standards (100 lux) and the current training area and what we hope to be a new training area between the overflow car park and the 2nd team pitch to al;so be lit to training levels of 100 Lux

Musco Lighting will be the installer – all we have to find now is the £69,000 plus VAT to pay for them.

Watch This Space !

Anyone fancy sponsoring a floodlight contact Dave E

Keswick Rugby Club in the Heart of the Lake District arguably has the most scenic ground in the country being surrounded by the high lakeland fells.

But the view comes at a price – Lake District is probably a good way to describe the Club’s pitches several times a year. The Club House itself is protected by the town’s flood defence wall, but in 2005 the flood waters breached the defences and the Club house disappeared under several feet of contaminated water and the storm force winds ripped off large areas of the roof.

For 18 months the Club worked on an ambitious £750,000 scheme to build a new elevated Club House that would be flood proof but were ultimately frustrated when a key developer withdrew and Sport England funding was lost.

After 2 seasons of having no Club House and feeding youth players in the car park there was little choice but to set about a plan to try and recover the old Club House.

Leading the way were 3 past players encased in biological suits who undertook the initial pressure cleaning and spraying with antibacterial spray every surface in the Club. This was followed by a team of over 70 volunteers who cleared the club house of debris took down fallen ceiling and stripped the plaster from the walls. Work then turned to rebuilding and decorating with dads and mums wielding hammers and paint brushes whilst their children played rugby outside. The Club House and kitchen were finally brought back into use.

However 2 weeks after re opening a new flood put 6 inches of water back in the Club House.

Stage 2 – we had to flood proof the Club House – so this summer the floor was taken up and many tonnes of material was moved to create a solid floor. A new pumped drainage system was installed outside the Club House to pump away any water build up.

Of course during the inevitable leaning on shovels and the end of work beers, ideas started to come forward on how it would be nice to have a patio with picnic tables for the members and their families in the summer.

3,000 thousand pavers latter the new flood proof clubhouse with a new extensive patio was opened.

All the work has been undertaken entirely by Club volunteers.

Regrettably the 2 squash courts at the Club proved to be completely beyond repair. However they have now been transformed with one court now being equipped as a gym and the second converted to house all the kit and equipment allowing us to create an extra changing room in the main Club House.

What’s next – we are now working with the RFU to improve the pitches and this summer are planning to install a new drainage system, undertake major remedial work on the pitches and install floodlights. Our objective being to double the amount of rugby we offer to our 2 senior and 13 youth teams.

Having been awarded National Runner up Youth Rugby Club of the Year we have now gone one better and won a National Best Award from the RFU !

The President XV Award Scheme run by the RFU makes awards in 15 categories from Best Youth Rugby Club through to Best Vets Club etc.

One of the categories is Better Facilities – and we are the National Winners of this category.

In all honesty when we entered we thought the award would go to a Club with a new £5 million Club House an all weather pitch and all singing and dancing facilities. So our entry was a bit tongue in cheek and explained how following the loss of the Club House to the floods in 2005 we had battled through for 2 seasons without any facilities but then raised the phoenix from the ashes and got he Club House reopened and then built in the flood defences and created the new patio – clearly all the hard work of everyone over this period and the Club spirit it created was taken on board by the RFU Awards Panel

This award really is about that hard core of members that sweated, cleaned, painted and plastered the Club back from the dereliction after the floods to what we now have

Its also an award for all the players and parents that kept supporting the Club during this hugely difficult period when we were feeding the youngsters sausage & chips in the car park in all weathers

Finally its an award for all the visiting Clubs that kept coming despite the lack of facilities

To all of you thank you !

And finally watch this space cos we are just about to launch a major new improvement program

And dont forget if you want to help and have great fun helping just let me know – there’s a job for everyone !

 

For everyone that helped on Sunday a big thank you ! For everyone that came and watched we hope you enjoyed it and now realise what great rugby is being played by the girls !

Our thanks to all the teams that took part – the attitude of all the players, coaches and supporters was tremendous and made the day very special.

Well done to the Keswick girls who made both finals but lost out to 2 very good teams and anyone who watched the U18 final of Keswick vs The Canadian Touring team from Waterloo, Ontario know what a superb knife edge match that was.

Special thanks to Tony Cunningahm MP and to our Mayor & Mayoress Roger & Margret Purkiss for giving out the trophies.

Anyway all the results are below

UNDER 15 – Pool A Games

Keswick 32  Furness 0

Caldy / Sandbach 0  Tyldesley 39

Furness 7  Caldy / Sandbach  34

Keswick 0  Tyldesley 15

Tyldesley 42  Furness 0

Caldy / Sanbach 0 Keswick 17

 

UNDER 15  POOL B GAMES

Kirkby Lonsdale / Darlington MP (KLDMP)   0   Alnwick 20

Morpeth  12   Rockcliffe 17

Alnwick 10  Morpeth 28

KLDMP  12 Rockcliffe 29

Rockcliffe 15  Alnwick 31

Morpeth 40  KLDMP 0

UNDER 15 SEMI FINAL

Keswick 12  Morpeth 5

Tyldesley 31  Alnwick 5

UNDER 15 FINAL

Keswick 0 Tyldesley 38

 

UNDER 18 POOL A GAMES

Keswick  43  Furness 0

Keswick 17  Tyldesley 12

Furness 0  Tyldesley 12

 

UNDER 18 POOL B GAMES

Morpeth  8 Caldy 5

Waterloo, Canada 14  KLDMP  0

Caldy / Sandbach 0  Waterloo, Canada 10

Morpeth 5 KLDMP 12

KLDMP 12  Caldy / Sandbach 29

Waterloo, Canada 26  Morpeth 0

UNDER 18 SEMI FINALS

Keswick 32  Caldy / Sandbach 12

Waterloo, Canada 17  Tyldesley 10

UNDER 18 FINAL

Keswick 12   Waterloo, Canada 14

 

There is some great rugby this weekend

Saturday – Former Players reunion followed by 1st XV vs Aldwinians

Sunday – County U13 Cup Final – Keswick v Carlisle at Keswick KO 11

             National U17’s Round 2 Keswick v Caldy at Keswick KO 1.30

A big day for both the U13 & U17 lads – please give them your support they are both up against very stiff opposition

Keswick 24 Fylde 5

The score line does not reflect the possession with a large Fylde pack keeping the ball for long periods of the game but unable to make genuine headway against a much smaller but determined Keswick pack. When Keswick did get possession they moved ball quickly to unleash a back line that Fylde failed to stop.  Sensible choices between kicking and running meant Keswick posed a threat whenever they moved forward.

 An excellent game played in very good spirit and the fylde supporters were a greta bunch as well – supporting good play not just their team – even the sun shone for much of the game !

The 2nd round will be on Sunday March 29th at home against Caldy

www.caldyrugby.co.uk

 

Hosting a major tournament does not come cheap – especially when it will involve nearly 300 players. The Club is therefore very thankful for the following very kind and welcome sponsorships & donations :-

               Main Sponsor  – Keswick BID (Business Improvement District)  £500

               Supported by  – RFUW (Northern Region)    £300

                                      Allerdale Borough Council    £100

 Thank you to them all

 

Keswick will be playing at Home against Fylde in the 1st round of this years National U17’s

MATCH DETAILS  – SUNDAY MARCH 15th Kick Off 1pm

Please come and support – it will as always with the National U17’s be a great game of the highest quality  – and it will get you in the mood for the following Sundays Girls Tournament  !

 

March22nd’s tournamant is taking shape and it looks like being a great rugby event for keswick. As well as the Canadian Team we have now had an entry from Langholm in the Borders – they will be bring a full U15 team and a number of U18’s who we will link up with other “spare” players to make a Barbarain team

Just hope the trophey stays in England !

 

Every grant we can get is valuable to us and the County Councils Neighbourhood Fourm have just awarded us £1,000 grant towards the grounds project.

What was particualrly pleasing is that as part of the application process we have to do a presentation at the forum and it was great to be able to tell a very wide audience what we have been doing at the Club and what we are seeking to achieve

A special thanks to Pat Ackred the Forum organisor and Elizabeth Barraclough our local County Councillor who chairs the Forum – Thank you