MEMBERS of a village rugby club are set to embark on a half marathon as the club continues to fundraise for a £200,000 clubhouse revamp. 

Six members of Mistley Rugby Club, known as The Old Boys, will complete the marathon as the club moves into the second phase of building its new clubhouse.

Development of the new clubhouse will have four phases with phase one seeing the implementation of a changing room with showers, a referee room, a bar and kitchen and a social area.

Club president Mark Towler said: “Historically the club has worked out of an old demountable classroom for the first 30 odd years which was not really fit for purpose.

“In the past few years we’ve been fundraising towards the clubhouse and have had a £10,000 grant from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) among other donations.

“I think what I’m most proud of within the first phase is the number of people within the club and the periphery that have contributed.

“The cost of the new clubhouse will be more than £200,000 but I would estimate something like £150,000 will come from labour and physical donations.”

The second phase of the new clubhouse will see an extension to the social area and phase three will have new storage facilities built to replace containers.

Phase four will see the old clubhouse demolished and replaced with a pair of changing rooms and a second referees room.

The Old Boys are made up of club members including Mr Towler, Willy Meston, Rodney Baxter, Paul Richardson, Gareth Hawkins and Sam Forrester.

The group will be walking from Harwich to Mistley Rugby Club to raise money.

Mr Towler added: “We’re all more mature members shall we say, most of us are in our 60’s and 70’s.

“The last time I did something like this was in the year 2000 so it will be a great challenge but worthwhile in the end.”

The half marathon will take place on Saturday, November 5.

For more information and to donate visit bit.ly/3FGwKJZ.