Lighting up Hove Rugby

Who are we?

We are Hove Rugby Club, a community rugby club based in Hove Recreation Ground in Hove providing rugby for all.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Hove, unlike some clubs was fortunate to come out of Covid lockdowns with increased participation. However the months of no revenue generation meant the budget for the much needed development of playing spaces had to be cut.

With the expansion of our women's and girls sections and large numbers of boys coming through our youth teams we are running out of space for training on dark winter nights with only one pitch currently floodlit. With just one pitch floodlit we see year on year increased damage to the ground and with wet winters we have to cancel many training sessions and curtail summer activity to allow for the pitch to recover. 

In the past three years the social touch teams have showcased the recovery of rugby at the club, with many parents now playing rugby for the first time through the provision of social touch rugby and increasingly drawing in new players from the local community. Many of these players have never played rugby before but are now loving the touch rugby experience and the benefits to their physical and mental health of getting out and playing sport in a supportive team environment. The RFU promotes clubs diversifying the types of rugby they offer to increase the resilience of rugby clubs and we were well on our way to achieving this over the summer months. But with the nights closing in the lack of floodlit space means we may have to stop the social touch rugby as we do not have the space for them to train. 

How we'll spend the money raised

The money raised will purchase removable pneumatic poles and footings for the floodlights on pitch 4. We have already purchased the lights to illuminate the space available to train but we don't have the removable pneumatic poles to install the lights.

We will also replace the bulbs in the main floodlights to more energy efficient bulbs so we can reduce our electricity costs. With the increased cost of electricity our energy bills have skyrocketed over the past year. The less we spend on energy the more money we will have to support the rugby we can provide and the more resilient the club will be with extra money to spend. 

Community impact

With this extra lighting we can provide more space for teams to train in and reduce the damage to the main training pitch from over use. 

The extra space will enable us to provide more space for our affiliated International Gay Rugby Club the Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents and enable our new women's social touch rugby team to carry on playing throughout the winter.

We may also be able to expand our rugby offer to include walking rugby, a game designed for all ages to play and provide activity to those who have aged out of playing contact rugby.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. 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.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. 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. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!