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Opening Day Speech
Peter Duggan11 May - 14:29
Delivered by immediate past President, Trevor Keough
For those that don't know me, my name is Trevor Keough. I am the immediate past president of Keswick Rugby Club and current chairman of Keswick Community Rugby Trust. I would like to welcome all of you here on what is a historic day for the club, the Keswick community, rugby union and wider sport locally and nationally.
Tim Green our club president will be speaking directly after me and will be talking about the big build project and how we've arrived at today. I will try to keep these remarks to a reasonable time span as I know there is great excitement and so many people meeting up again in celebration of this event.
I'm going to talk about a bit of history of our club as we lead up to our 150th anniversary in 2029. For those who are wondering we have the 1879 bar named after the formation date of the club. I find it amazing that we have a gap of more than 140 years where the 1st known club photograph shows the team setting up and playing out of a marquee in 1879 and us doing it this last season all over again.
Regarding land, property and buildings, before the Second World War, the club relied entirely on Keswick School for use of pitches which is even why to this day the school and the club co-operate in this area. Our new clubhouse has state of the art changing facilities but in those days players changed at home and would meet in the County Hotel opposite the war memorial. After the war the club rented the first premises which was a cottage behind the Oddfellows Arms which they self help converted into showers and a changing room. After match festivities were over the market square in the Royal Oak Hotel now called The Lodge.
A theme that runs through this short history is the get up and go and entrepreneurial nature of the members that continues to this day. The club was always on the lookout for our own pitch and land to build on. This all came together in 1956 with the lease of our current main pitch from Cumberland County Council and the purchase of the land where the clubhouse, stand, rifle club and old squash court stands from the Cumberland Motor Services Bus Company and local farmers for the princely sum of £125 which the club considered at the time to be daylight robbery!!
The old clubhouse demolished only one year ago was started to be built in May 1957 and completed in September 1958. The bar and cellar were added in 1959. With loan assistance from the RFU as today with grants and loans, the grandstand (or church as our friends from Corstophine would call it) was completed in 1961. As a matter of interest, the building costs in total for the old clubhouse and grandstand were:
• Original clubhouse - £2485
• Bar and cellar extension - £1383
• Grandstand - £2326
The increase in playing numbers up to 3 senior men’s teams in the 1970’s and 80’s meant an identified need for extra changing rooms and shower facilities. The money for this first extension was raised through players and committee members organising and running Donkey Derby’s in 77 and 78 which raised enough to do the build. Other past examples of needs to expand and financial solutions include:
• 2002 – Clubhouse extension and new kitchen - £20K _ Jennings Brewery Loan
• 2006 – New patio - £10K self help
• 2010 – New floodlights, drainage and ground maintenance equipment – £240K Grant application to RFU
• 2012 – New power supply for Beer Festival - £10k self-help.
And so it goes on right up to the present day.
The buildings are one thing but the most important part is the people, young and old, who make up this great club. You have heard how we have seen growth in numbers year on year, and this was greatly affected by the increase in numbers in junior rugby. In previous years, across the country, the pathway to adult rugby was through schools with very little involvement of clubs until club scouts would start looking at school teams to see if it was worth approaching a potential player. That’s how I and many others here started our club playing careers. Nationally this changed as years went by with less rugby at schools meaning clubs had to become more involved in setting up a pipeline of young talent, particularly with the advent of league rugby. Club survival meant being in leagues and bringing on enough young players to keep the sides going. Once again with forward thinking, great leadership and a commitment to raise the necessary finance Keswick appointed a full-time youth development officer (Alan Gray) who worked with local primary schools and Keswick School to keep the pipeline filled. More lately we have had a head of development, club coaches and other club volunteers working with the schools to keep recruitment strong. Their work with male and female students and the investment in time, money and coaching skills has paid dividends when we look at the health of the club today. (and even a part played in the success of our honoured guest Abbie Ward.)
The innovation of a club development officer and later a head of development as well as employment of professional coaches came about through a whole club effort. Funds were raised through the hard work of many volunteers organising the Keswick Half marathon now in it’s 45th year and the Keswick Beer Festival now in its 27th year. The Beer Festival is a great example of community collaboration with the club working hand in glove with Keswick Lions also involving Keswick Rotary to deliver a highly successful fundraising event.
Back to people, we have seen the growth in particular of women’s and girls rugby over the past few years to the point where the Keswick Falcons women’s teams and Keswick girls teams are highly successful and continue to grow in size and capability at all levels. The infrastructure around coaching, playing, team management and administration for women’s and junior rugby has become well established and is a great example to other clubs. The Falcons have been a revelation in stepping up to take responsibility for a number of leadership and administration functions in the club overall and as Tim will explain have been leading activists in the Big Build project.
To conclude this section, we are where we are because of people’s love for this club and it’s service to the wider Keswick and Cumbria community and to our sport in general. We are where we are because we follow the RFU values of Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship. We are where we are because of physical factors like constant flooding and lack of facilities making us victims of our own success. We are where we are through a spirit of can-do entrepreneurship, leadership, volunteering and dogged determination. We are where we are right now through the sacrifice of a great project team of planners, organisers, fundraisers and supporters who have funded the project through donations, sponsored activities, paver buying and much more.
We are blessed with an incredibly beautiful location, facilities that are second to none, a belief in our Keswick Way and confidence in the future. Let us all honour the people who have gone before, and ourselves now, by achieving continuous development on and off the field ensuring that Keswick Rugby Club remains successful, financially viable, sustainable and offers a safe, friendly, welcoming environment for decades to come.
Tim Green our club president will be speaking directly after me and will be talking about the big build project and how we've arrived at today. I will try to keep these remarks to a reasonable time span as I know there is great excitement and so many people meeting up again in celebration of this event.
I'm going to talk about a bit of history of our club as we lead up to our 150th anniversary in 2029. For those who are wondering we have the 1879 bar named after the formation date of the club. I find it amazing that we have a gap of more than 140 years where the 1st known club photograph shows the team setting up and playing out of a marquee in 1879 and us doing it this last season all over again.
Regarding land, property and buildings, before the Second World War, the club relied entirely on Keswick School for use of pitches which is even why to this day the school and the club co-operate in this area. Our new clubhouse has state of the art changing facilities but in those days players changed at home and would meet in the County Hotel opposite the war memorial. After the war the club rented the first premises which was a cottage behind the Oddfellows Arms which they self help converted into showers and a changing room. After match festivities were over the market square in the Royal Oak Hotel now called The Lodge.
A theme that runs through this short history is the get up and go and entrepreneurial nature of the members that continues to this day. The club was always on the lookout for our own pitch and land to build on. This all came together in 1956 with the lease of our current main pitch from Cumberland County Council and the purchase of the land where the clubhouse, stand, rifle club and old squash court stands from the Cumberland Motor Services Bus Company and local farmers for the princely sum of £125 which the club considered at the time to be daylight robbery!!
The old clubhouse demolished only one year ago was started to be built in May 1957 and completed in September 1958. The bar and cellar were added in 1959. With loan assistance from the RFU as today with grants and loans, the grandstand (or church as our friends from Corstophine would call it) was completed in 1961. As a matter of interest, the building costs in total for the old clubhouse and grandstand were:
• Original clubhouse - £2485
• Bar and cellar extension - £1383
• Grandstand - £2326
The increase in playing numbers up to 3 senior men’s teams in the 1970’s and 80’s meant an identified need for extra changing rooms and shower facilities. The money for this first extension was raised through players and committee members organising and running Donkey Derby’s in 77 and 78 which raised enough to do the build. Other past examples of needs to expand and financial solutions include:
• 2002 – Clubhouse extension and new kitchen - £20K _ Jennings Brewery Loan
• 2006 – New patio - £10K self help
• 2010 – New floodlights, drainage and ground maintenance equipment – £240K Grant application to RFU
• 2012 – New power supply for Beer Festival - £10k self-help.
And so it goes on right up to the present day.
The buildings are one thing but the most important part is the people, young and old, who make up this great club. You have heard how we have seen growth in numbers year on year, and this was greatly affected by the increase in numbers in junior rugby. In previous years, across the country, the pathway to adult rugby was through schools with very little involvement of clubs until club scouts would start looking at school teams to see if it was worth approaching a potential player. That’s how I and many others here started our club playing careers. Nationally this changed as years went by with less rugby at schools meaning clubs had to become more involved in setting up a pipeline of young talent, particularly with the advent of league rugby. Club survival meant being in leagues and bringing on enough young players to keep the sides going. Once again with forward thinking, great leadership and a commitment to raise the necessary finance Keswick appointed a full-time youth development officer (Alan Gray) who worked with local primary schools and Keswick School to keep the pipeline filled. More lately we have had a head of development, club coaches and other club volunteers working with the schools to keep recruitment strong. Their work with male and female students and the investment in time, money and coaching skills has paid dividends when we look at the health of the club today. (and even a part played in the success of our honoured guest Abbie Ward.)
The innovation of a club development officer and later a head of development as well as employment of professional coaches came about through a whole club effort. Funds were raised through the hard work of many volunteers organising the Keswick Half marathon now in it’s 45th year and the Keswick Beer Festival now in its 27th year. The Beer Festival is a great example of community collaboration with the club working hand in glove with Keswick Lions also involving Keswick Rotary to deliver a highly successful fundraising event.
Back to people, we have seen the growth in particular of women’s and girls rugby over the past few years to the point where the Keswick Falcons women’s teams and Keswick girls teams are highly successful and continue to grow in size and capability at all levels. The infrastructure around coaching, playing, team management and administration for women’s and junior rugby has become well established and is a great example to other clubs. The Falcons have been a revelation in stepping up to take responsibility for a number of leadership and administration functions in the club overall and as Tim will explain have been leading activists in the Big Build project.
To conclude this section, we are where we are because of people’s love for this club and it’s service to the wider Keswick and Cumbria community and to our sport in general. We are where we are because we follow the RFU values of Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship. We are where we are because of physical factors like constant flooding and lack of facilities making us victims of our own success. We are where we are through a spirit of can-do entrepreneurship, leadership, volunteering and dogged determination. We are where we are right now through the sacrifice of a great project team of planners, organisers, fundraisers and supporters who have funded the project through donations, sponsored activities, paver buying and much more.
We are blessed with an incredibly beautiful location, facilities that are second to none, a belief in our Keswick Way and confidence in the future. Let us all honour the people who have gone before, and ourselves now, by achieving continuous development on and off the field ensuring that Keswick Rugby Club remains successful, financially viable, sustainable and offers a safe, friendly, welcoming environment for decades to come.
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