Sheppey
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125 Years
Sheppey Rugby Football Club was
founded in1892 by members of Her
Majesty’s Forces.
Before the club found a permanent
home at ‘The Ditch’ it had played on
many other playing fields around
the Isle of Sheppey. In the mid-1960s
the club bought the present field and
in 1977, following a decision to opt
for Incorporation, The Ditch finally
belonged to the members of Sheppey
RFC, making us one of the few rugby
clubs in Kent to be owned outright.
Our first clubhouse was the old
wooden Civil Defence Hut in Sheerness
which was painstakingly taken apart by
club members, transported and rebuilt
on our present site with its large car park.
Many of our old boys fondly remember
the communal bath which took most of a
match to fill and if there was more than
one game at home there was a race to get
in the bath first especially if it was a wet
day (Sheppey mud was legendary).
In 1981 the ‘new’ clubhouse was
completed and again most of the work
was carried out by club members under
the supervision of Mike Wells and the
club truly had a home. In 2011, the club
ground was renamed ‘Stupple Field’
in honour of the tireless ground work
which had been carried out by club
stalwart Alf Stupple over many, many
years. Most can agree that it is one of the
best surfaces in Kent to play Rugby on.
It is fair to say that the playing side has
struggled following the highlight of our
Centenary Season when the club ran out
six teams. But our youth development
programme in recent years has proved
successful and in season 2014/15 we
narrowly missed promotion to London
South East 3 with our young team. In
2015/16 we had a very successful season
and our unbeaten record in Kent 1 finally
gained us promotion to London South
East 3
Sheppey is now in the process of
fund-raising through our ‘Buy A Brick’
campaign to improve and enlarge
our facilities. We obtained planning
permission in October 2013 for our
ambitious plans but sadly this lapsed in
2016 and we are now completing work
on our current clubhouse to improve
facilities for the players.
However, we have not lost sight of
our goal to extend the clubhouse and
are still fundraising. We have this season
taken the bold step of appointing Aston
Croall as General Manager in order to
drive the club forward. Aston brings
with him a wealth of experience and
enthusiasm in club Rugby.
The club is keen to promote the
club, rugby union football and make
our facilities available to the wider
community.
“I have been involved with the club for seven years now having become an MP in 2010. I’m always keen to
support local sports club and have been behind them in the development of their better facilities.
I’d just like to take this opportunity to say that Sheppey RFC really is an amazing community club supporting
and providing the very best for grassroots sports. You are doing an excellent job and long may the club remain
on the island.”
Gordon Henderson, MP
44 Issue 76