Andover Rugby Club’s Youth Academy has received £12,000 from healthcare provider Simplyhealth. With more than 350 young players using the club’s facilities each season, the donation will help towards the cost of end of season pitch maintenance as well as the planned refurbishment of the clubhouse heating and hot water system.

Simplyhealth has had a long standing relationship with the Andover club with special emphasis focused on their Youth Academy, and during the past eight years, have donated in the region of £64,000.

Andover’s sponsorship and PR officer, Dickie Staff, commented: “On behalf of the whole club, I would like to say a huge thank you to Simplyhealth for its continued support. With the extreme weather conditions we experienced last winter, our two main pitches needed some major refurbishment work and without their support our players would have been left with unplayable surfaces. The funding has enabled us to have the pitches vertidrained, re-seeded and fertilised, with our contractor also spreading nearly 100 tonnes of top dressing on our two main pitches. This refurbishment programme is part of an ongoing project to ensure that we provide and maintain safe pitches and training areas for all our players. In addition to this work we can now also complete a long standing project involving the replacement of one of our hot water boilers as well as a new hot water storage tank”

Mark Day, spokesperson for Simplyhealth’s Andover Community Funds said: “Andover Rugby Club offers a valuable contribution to the local community by offering their facilities to young people of all abilities. ‘The club not only enables young people to play rugby, but also offers so much more by helping youngsters to become ‘team’ players, as well as learning respect for both themselves as well as others, all of which helps to further build their confidence and self esteem. We are pleased to be able support the club that touches so many people within the local community.”

www.arfcya.co.uk. www.simplyhealth.co.uk.