Blues show their spirit in big fundraising effort

Kettering Rugby Clubs members and players have been helping to raise money to ensure the club gets through the Covid-19 crisis

In partnership with Limitless Training Club, which is also based at Waverley Road, the Blues launched the ‘2.5/25 on the 25th Challenge’ in a bid to raise £25,000.

The event, which took place over the weekend, saw club members of all ages completing either walks, runs, bike rides, exercises and other activities based around the 2.5/25 numbers while earning sponsorship as they went.

Members were then encouraged to share their efforts over social media and it resulted in a major club event, which left chairman Lennie Newman bursting with pride.

He joked: “I personally went on a bike ride and I am still suffering now!

“We have got a partnership with Limitless Training Club at Waverley Road with Dwayne Paul and one of our board members Nick Cleere and they came up with this 2.5/25 idea to take place on April 25 with the aim of trying to raise £25,000.

“I am just the figurehead but Dwayne and Nick are the ones who have pushed this through and set it all up within a few days.

“It’s an enormous effort and it won’t end there, we will probably look to do something else in May.

“I think the majority of us are being sensible and listening to the advice but being isolated means you can sometimes drift away from that spirit of being together at the club.

“I really felt it last Friday and Saturday that everybody was coming together.

“Social media before this was annoying me. I used it a lot for business but the amount of ‘trolling’ going on wasn’t good at all.

“But I really feel it’s being used for all the right reasons at the moment. It is allowing people to have fun and seeing how each other are.

“It’s not all roses out there and our members have been going out and doing shopping for our elderly members who have been in lockdown for a bit longer.

“We have been out in the community but on Saturday it really felt good to be part of the club again. Even though we can’t be there, we were all together and doing something good. I am really proud of everyone’s efforts.”

So far, the efforts of members has seen nearly £12,000 raised.

The rugby season came to a premature end last month as the pandemic took hold of the UK and Newman admitted the efforts to bring in some extra income are necessary to help cover costs and bills while matches can’t be played.

“We are a fairly big club and we have spent in excess of £500,000 on the club in the last 10 years in redeveloping it so we have always got a bit of a ‘war chest’ but not for what could possibly be a period of six to eight months before we play again,” he added.

“We don’t know what normality will be and sport at amateur level is probably going to be the last thing they roll out.

“As a club that relies on membership, sponsorship and just things like bar takings, there was a shortfall. So we thought we would go to our members and the public to see what we could do.

“It’s not about trying to make money, it’s about trying to cover the costs while we stand there empty.

“We have furloughed everybody and we have gone for whatever grants we can but it’s like anything, you still have all your creditors to pay. A lot of them are local businesses so you want to be seen to be doing the right thing.”

Anyone who would like to donate can do so by visiting the website https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ketteringrugby