Final call to help Withycombe Rugby Club's fundraising plan

The Withies are hoping to open the club lounge to increase the main facilities, to be used by bigger community groups and increase event capacity, as well as building a gym for club players, to improve their fitness and wellbeing

For nearly 100 years, Withycombe have been proud of their independence and the way in which they have provided sporting and recreation facilities for the residents of Exmouth and beyond. The pitch and Clubhouse are further used to support the wider Exmouth community, including a number of local schools and organisations for sports days, dance lessons, wedding receptions etc.

The Withies have moved on in recent years and have grown from 1 to 17 teams: 2 Senior Men’s teams, 10 Junior Boys teams (U6 – U16), 3 Junior Girls teams (U13, U15 & U18) a Colts side and a Senior Ladies team.

With the huge expansion in the numbers of people, they have now become a victim of our own success as we can no longer accommodate everyone. This situation is obviously exacerbated by the combination of ages and genders, not only in terms of changing facilities, but it also raises safeguarding issues.

The cost of the project has been estimated at £150,000. They have already raised over £130,000 from larger donors, local grants and fundraising activities at the club (events, cake sales, festivals and so on...) but need to raise a final £10,000-20,000 to make the project happen in time for the club's centenary year in 2024.

Find out more here

On the pitch, Withycombe battled valiantly to earn two hard-fought bonus points against a powerful Barnstaple Athletic side on Saturday.

Barum raced into a 10-0 lead after five minutes and the deficit was 17-3 at the break. The Withies gained a foothold when George Doughty and Joe Blyth scored. Doughty then touched down out wide and Callum Tose made it four tries in an eventual narrow loss of 27-31.