East Grinstead
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East
Grinstead
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
East Grinstead RFC is a fine example of a club whose sound
financial business plan is allowing them to play a vital role in
the community both on and off the field. Rugby Club Magazine
recently caught up with their Chairman, Bob Marsh, to find out
more about the good work the club has been doing.
He told us, “I’ve been with the
club for thirty years now. We were in
difficult circumstances around eighteen
months ago and in danger of going
into administration. Since then we’ve
returned to being a thriving community
rugby club supporting three senior
teams, a vets team, a new ladies team
as well as juniors and intermediates at
every age group level.”
“We are one of the largest clubs in
Sussex and own all of our own ground
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and are virtually debt free now. We see
a major part of our role now as being a
grass roots rugby club. I think the key to
our turn around has been a very strong
focus on good management; managing
by process and not panic.
“As well as that we have been
fortunate to have a very, very supportive
membership who donated sufficient
funds to keep us afloat whilst we re-
engineered the clubs finances. I’m
pleased to say that we’re now in a
position to really work at being a major
benefit to the community as a whole.
“From a facilities point of view we
have rebuilt the club totally; we’ve
upgraded our pitches, our equipment
and our clubhouse facilities. We’ve
been greatly assisted by the community
payback teams. These are people that
get community service orders against
them. Every week we can have anything
between five and twenty men here
carrying out work. Now that we have