Haverhill Rugby Club looks to the future thanks to Covid grant

A scheme to help get people active following the pandemic, boosting their wellbeing, has left a lasting legacy at Haverhill Rugby Club.

Restart Grants were paid out one year ago to community organisations and sports clubs.

West Suffolk Council worked with Community Action Suffolk and grant provider Suffolk County Council to administer the funding.

In West Suffolk, nearly 150 recipients were supported with more than £240,000 of grants.

Among them was Haverhill Rugby Club which used a £2,000 grant to set up youth and colt teams (under 18s), which feed into its senior club.

It now has around 60 young players aged from four to 18 and is competing against long-established clubs with the youth side playing away at Newmarket this weekend.

“I think it has created a legacy for the club and the town,” said Paul Martin, chairperson of Haverhill Rugby Club.

“The club has been around since 1965 but we didn’t have a youth side before this. It’s been difficult in the past because in many ways we are a rugby club in a football town.

“But through creating and developing our youth and colts’ sides, we are getting children and young people off of their consoles, getting them physically active and fit and building a sense of belonging to a club which is good for their mental wellbeing as well.

“The sport teaches them discipline – we teach them to respect the referee, while we also do lots of fund-raising for charity which the youth and colts’ players are part of, all of which helps reinforce the culture of the club and our role in the community.”

The Restart Grant was designed to help clubs and community organisations reopen safely following the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to switch to new ways of working.

It saw grants of between £250 and £2,500 paid for additional staff, equipment or other adaptations with funding used to encourage people of all ages back into community and sports activities.