Sport England - Movement Fund has provided £7,000 of match funding
New LED floodlights for the main pitch
Northampton, West Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
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Aim
Upgrade the main pitch floodlights to LED to improve the light output and save costs
Who are we?
Founded in 1875, Long Buckby RFC are one of the oldest rugby clubs in the country and probably the oldest village rugby club in the country.
The club is a large part of the community, with players from all ages with minis, juniors, boys, girls, seniors, veterans and touch rugby sections.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The current floodlights are now over 40 years old and in need of replacement.
Upgrading to LED will reduce costs, improve the carbon footprint of the club and increase player participation rates
The improved lighting will mean the club can have evening matches, which will help improve player availability and increase participation rates.
The costs savings will be made through lower electricity usage as the LED lights use less power.
The light from the current floodlights is sufficient for training however it is not up to the current standards for matches.
The new LED lights will exceed the RFU standards for match lighting. As a result, we will then be able to host evening matches and also be more flexible with kick off times at the weekend.
From the beginning of November to the end of February, official kick off times for league and cup games are earlier to allow for the shorter days.
Being more flexible with kick off times and match days will help with Seniors player availability. A lot of players cannot play on Saturdays, or early on a Saturday, due to work and family commitments. Playing on a Friday night, or having later kick off times on a Saturday, will mean players will have time for family and work commitments. Allowing them to be available for matches and as a result increasing participation.
The Minis and Juniors section has a large number of children playing rugby and is growing. All Minis and Juniors matches and training is on a Sunday morning, which means at times in the season there is not enough room to host all the matches and training sessions. To have the option to have Juniors matches on a mid week evening will help relieve the pressure on pitch allocation on a Sunday morning. The Junior players would also love to play under floodlights! There are also some Junior players who can't play at weekends, due to family events, other activities/sports, or school rugby, so being flexible will help increase our participation rates in the junior section of the club.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The money raised will pay for the replacement LED floodlights and their installation.
How you can play your part
The target is £14,000.
The good news is that Sport England have pledged £7000, however for the pledge to be paid, the following criteria needs to be met
- Donations from at least 25 different people
- we need to raise £7000 ourselves
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
- Make a donation. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
- Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
- Sponsorship. Get involved if you are a local business and support the project through sponsorship. We will give you a shout out!
- Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 28th August 2026 at 12:24pm