Game-changing cash boost for grass-roots clubs
Scottish Rugby has today announced the eight recipients of its Club Sustainability Fund for 2018/19, putting £298,500 into projects to improve facilities and projects at the grassroots level of the game.
Montrose, Gala and Boroughmuir were awarded the maximum amount of £50,000 towards their applications, while Linlithgow received £48,000, Huntly were also awarded £34,000 and Leith were the recipients of £30,000.
Scottish Rugby has made a commitment through its Agenda 3 strategy to support sustainability within rugby clubs across the country. As part of this commitment, through the Club Sustainability Fund, it has awarded £400,000 this year to support a variety of projects.
On the funding announcement, Director of Rugby Development Sheila Begbie MBE said, “The Scottish Rugby Development team are delighted to continue the support for clubs to enhance their facilities further, enabling them to deliver a higher quality of rugby across Scotland.
Through the three levels of the Club Sustainability Fund, we have been able to support 47 clubs during this funding cycle, ranging from Kelso in the South East to Stornoway in the North West.
Having originally hoped to support 40 clubs with funding, we are pleased that we were able to exceed that target opening up financing to seven more club projects.
We look forward to visiting the clubs that have won an award this year and seeing their new facilities in action.”
The Montrose investment will be used as part of a £500k project for an ambitious new sustainable facility that will not only benefit the rugby club, but the surrounding community with plans of a café and collaborations with local business.
Gala applied to support their project of the installation of a whole new lighting system at the club which will now allow for rugby to be played on the back-pitches at Netherdale.
Boroughmuir’s award will go towards extending and upgrading the existing gym facilities currently at the club.
Other awards were made to Lasswade (£11,340) to enable the club to add gravel banding drainage on both of their pitches and Hillhead Jordanhill (£24,000) towards replacement floodlights.
There are three strands of Scottish Rugby’s Club Sustainability Funds which are available to all clubs:
FastTrack for small facility improvements
Revenue for sustainability projects
Capital for larger facility projects
During his recent visit to Montrose, Caledonian Midlands Regional Director Steve Turnbull said,
“We are pleased to announce the Capital and Revenue awards this week.”
“Through the Club Sustainability Fund, we support clubs who have demonstrated a proven track record of developing rugby within their local communities. Montrose are a great example of a club, who are a small club, but have made a big impact in the growth and participation of rugby in their area through the hard work of volunteers.
“We look forward to working with the successful clubs in the development of their projects and seeing them come to life.”

What the clubs said…
Duncan Campbell, President of Montrose Rugby Club:“We’re so excited to get this award from Scottish Rugby and this is going to act as a great foundation for our new clubhouse. Our current facilities are not fit for purpose and we need something new, so this is going give us the opportunity to develop something that is going to drive forward rugby development, and wider sport and community development, in Montrose.”
Mellissa Singh Boroughmuir Marketing and Communications Director: “Boroughmuir are delighted to receive this award which is a significant contribution to funds required to expand our gym facilities. The gym not only provides a vital training facility but also an important income stream for the club.”
Bob Sneddon President of Gala: “The installation of these new lights is going to make a fantastic difference to the club. We’ve got a lovely pitch with undersoil heating so this upgrade will also allow training on the back pitch too during the winter months, as they will be covered now.
“It’ll help with hosting representative games here, which will indirectly benefit the club through means of income generation.”

Gala will install new lights at their ground at Netherdale
Ken Richardson President at Linlithgow: “We’re delighted to receive this grant which will allow us to replace the floodlights, which have been there since the 1990s from a safety view. It means that we will be able to continue to provide a full floodlighting area for all our players and ensure the sustainability of our club.
“There has been a strong appetite to have our second XV, U16 and U18 fixtures on a Friday night and this award will help us make sure these games take place. It is a major step forward as we prepare to celebrate our 50th year next year as part of our 2020 vision.
“We also have a number of other teams who use our pitch and we will continue to engage with the local community.”
Helen Cameron, Fixture Secretary at Huntly: “The sustainability award will make such a difference to Huntly RFC. We do not have a permanent pitch of our own at the moment which does create quite a few issues, especially during the winter months when day light is limited. The pitch we are using has minimal lighting which means that only a small portion of the pitch can be used during winter. The new lights will enable us to use the pitch to its potential and protect the grass as we will not be constantly training on the same section. It will also allow for more varied training with a larger area being accessible to the club.”
Jim Smith President Leith: “This is a tremendous award from Scottish Rugby towards significant improvements to the playing facilities at Academy Park. This will greatly enhance our on-going drive to deliver rugby to the people of Leith, especially the young. “
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