Time flies when you are enjoying yourself as the saying goes, and it has been a whole 12 months since Wigan MBC granted the club planning permission to build their own home, clubhouse and pitches (in partnership with Winstanley Park Cricket Club) on land next door to Winstanley College. The Joint Venture is known as the Orrell and Winstanley Community Sports Club and together we have made a lot of progress towards achieving our dream.

Last year was a busy year particularly on the land project and we have achieved a lot. We have strengthened our links with Winstanley College (both our 2XV and our U14/U15 Lions play their home games there) and we have also strengthened our links with Winstanley Tennis Club, using the facilities for meetings and after match refreshments. (Keep an eye out for our next event at the Club on 24th February).

We have a total of 96 individual donors from ORUFC and WPCC which includes those members who have added a small donation onto their ORUFC membership payment and these will be known as our Founding Members of the new development and will be honoured as such in the new clubhouse.

We have applied to the charity commission for Charitable status for O&WCSC and this will hopefully be approved by the end of March, which will mean that any grants and/or donations will be eligible for Gift Aid. Our Board of Trustees has been established and we are in the process of looking at the structure of the new organisation mentioned above. We are also moving on with discharging the conditions of our planning permission and planning all the surveys and drawings that will be required.

But we can’t stand still, the pace and pressure will increase even more this year. Grants are available to help fund our development but to qualify for them we need to demonstrate a financial commitment from the clubs and their members. This means that we need to raise £200,000 ourselves towards the cost of phase 1 of the project to level, drain and sow the pitches.

We have set up a joint Fundraising Group that will be responsible for all the events, sponsorship and fundraising. The Group will be looking at all kinds of events and fundraising activities as well as our membership offerings. Our next event will be our Sports Dinner on 8th March, with Guest Speaker, Neil Back MBE and comedian/compere, Pete Emmett. Club sponsor & long-time friend of Orrell RUFC, Dr John Morgan of Bucket & Sponge, will be our headline sponsor of the event. We will also be launching our new crowdfunding site in the very near future.

There is a core of hard working members who commit significant amounts of time to the cause. They are dedicated to moving us towards our goals on the playing side and in the administration of the club’s affairs, in attracting new sponsors and in fundraising; all of which they do for free, allowing the club to put all the monies it raises into the new development.

And now we need your help. As part of application for funding & grants, we need to show that there is community support for the new facilities. Would you mind completing the attached questionnaire (it’s not very long) and sending back to us at enquiries@orrellrugbyunion.com. The responses from the questionnaire will be included in our applications; so please complete a form and help us achieve our dream and provide a community facility for everyone in the area.

Thank you everyone for your support to date; we look forward to another busy year for the development and a successful year for our rugby teams.

The future’s black and amber