A NEW RUGBY PITCH - for our 50th Anniversary

Whether you're a player, coach or parent you will be well aware of the poor state of our two rugby pitches in Bushy Park. The Bartons Cottage pitch especially spends its year in one of two states; either masquerading as a paddy field in the winter or a dust bowl in the summer. Never green, never flat and more often than not unplayable.

We just can’t operate as a rugby club unless we have rugby pitches we can use throughout the season. Week after week in the winter it's mud wrestling not rugby, or we have to move, cancel or postpone matches altogether. For the Bartons Cottage pitch in particular this is all caused by standing water sitting on top of poorly drained and compacted soil, not helped by the fact that it is also the lowest point inside Bushy Park.

Well the good news is that after a long and detailed process we have finally identified a system that will provide us with a year round well drained, flat, green playing surface, that drains really quickly when it buckets down with rain. The drainage system that will be installed beneath the new pitch is called EGRP, which is a revolutionary system that has been successfully installed at The Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham and a number of other sports clubs around the UK. Click here to find out more about the EGRP system (installed by Groundwater Dynamics Ltd).

We would dearly like to get the drainage system installed and the new pitch laid and ready for the start of our 50th Anniversary Season, which kicks off in September this year. But for it to be ready in time the work would need to commence in mid April. We also need to raise the funds to pay for it, so time is of the essence.

This is where you can help the club. We are trying to fund the lions share of the costs of the new pitch (approx total cost of £60,000) from the sale of Investment Bonds, much like the ones we sold to raise funds for the new clubhouse.

This time we are looking to sell up to 30 Anniversary Investment Bonds of £2,000 each. Full details about the new pitch and the Anniversary Investment Bonds can be found in the document at the bottom of this article. We have already sold 10 bonds and we are looking towards our community partners to help us too, so we are getting there.

Please give it your careful consideration and if you think you can help then get in touch with Gareth CROSS (Club Chairman) or Rob ALLEN (Club Company Secretary). details with the document.