The Oval Zone’s Gary Williams pays a visit to Bethesda RFC to check on the progress of their new clubhouse.
To view the full album of pictures from the visit, please click here
After inching over the Horseshoe Pass in the ‘pea soup’, the day brightened as first I headed over to the new Rhyl RFC facility, then across to Llandudno for the Rybrook Land Rover Conwy North Wales Cup draws, before rounding up the afternoon with a visit to Bethesda RFC and a guided tour by Will and James, both passionate volunteers at the club.
Where the club is situated is going to be fantastic for the supporters, especially when watching the ball sailing right through the centre of the uprights and no doubt causing a panic to cover their pints, just in case. For the kicker, it’s going to be special kicking in to the clubhouse. Talk about getting close to the action!
The project is well advanced and it’s looking like an early December completion providing all the pieces in the jigsaw fall nicely in to place.
Funding for the £500,000+ project includes contributions from the Big Lottery Fund, the Rural Communities Development Fund, and Cist Gwynedd.
There has also been a significant contribution from club sponsors Peninsula Home Improvements and Peninsula Chief Executive, Ken Grayson, stated: ‘I know how important the rugby club is to the town of Bethesda. It’s more than just a rugby club, it’s a community hub for all the local people. I feel very strongly that businesses should support community organisations where they can, particularly youth groups. We should be supporting the youth of today because they are our future. Peninsula are very proud to be a part of this fantastic project’.
Will Sandison, Director of Rugby at Bethesda, said: ‘We were only able to consider a scheme such as this because of the very generous support of companies like Peninsula. The clubhouse and pitches are used by more than 2000 local people annually, be it the club’s many male and female teams, as well as different organisations and clubs and also the local secondary school and five primary schools. Like the old clubhouse this new clubhouse will continue be the focal point of the town of Bethesda’.
As with Rhyl RFC earlier in the day, and now in Bethesda, you can feel the passion and love for their clubs which oozes from every pore in the body of these, and many many other, wonderful volunteers who give their all for their clubs and I, for one, can’t wait to see their smiling, proud faces when the doors to their new clubhouses finally get swung open! Roll on December…
And then, to cap a fantastic rugby day in North Wales, I had that wonderful drive back through Snowdonia and then the Berwyns back to majestic Mid Wales. We are so blessed. Not a bad way to spend a day off work ?
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