Withycombe Rugby Club Vision24

Who are we?

Withycombe Rugby Football Club was founded in 1924 and the first clubhouse erected in 1964. 

For nearly 100 years, we have been proud of providing sports facilities for the residents of Exmouth and beyond. Our 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.

However, the Clubhouse is getting a little tired... it was extended to its present form in the early 1980’s - designed to accommodate only 1 men's team - usually playing alternate home/away fixtures, so a typical home game would see one home side and one visiting side totalling 30+ players.

We are pleased that things have moved on in recent years and we have grown from 1 to 17 thriving 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. Busy match days see hundreds of people using the club.

We want to give the teams a club they can be proud of by building new changing rooms to secure their future for the next 100 years and your community club needs you!

Why we need to expand our facilities

With the huge expansion in the numbers of people and we 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.

We currently have a short term agreement to use other local pitches, however this is far from ideal in that the changing facilities are well below standard and we also find that teams don't always return to the Club after matches, which seriously affects our takings from food and drinks which is our main source of revenue to run the Club.

Our present problems are further compounded by our inadequate provision of changing facilities for referees as the match officials currently have no separate shower and access to the pitch is via the players changing rooms which is completely unsatisfactory particularly during junior and female games.

So why are we crowdfunding?

Our plan is to to extend the existing changing facilities to:

• ensure appropriate safeguarding of all users of the club
• encourage (more!) players and supporters to use the club after matches
• improve the wellbeing of all genders and ages at the club
• increase the services that we can provide to the wider community who also use the club

The cost of the project has been estimated at £150,000. We 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 we need to raise a final £10,000-20,000 to make the project happen in time for the club's centenary year in 2024.

How can you support us?

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

1. Make a pledge. Every £1 helps towards the target. If you are able to claim Gift Aid, we will get an extra 25p per £1 that you donate!

2. Spread the word. Tell your friends, family and colleagues. Please 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. Run your own fundraiser to support us! A cake sale, a sponsored activity or any other ideas you may have. You can 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.

YOUR COMMUNITY CLUB IS IN NEED OF YOUR SUPPORT! PLEASE HELP US TO DEVELOP THE CLUBHOUSE TO SUPPORT THE NEXT 100 YEARS.