Okehampton
In the early 1970’s the then committee had
the vision to buy the old Okehampton
Show site and develop the club in a
permanent home. A Clubhouse was
built and later extended to include more
changing rooms and a large kitchen and
dining area. Moving to the present site
was a huge investment at the time.
The Club is a CASC club and is very
much part of the Community. I have
been involved at Okehampton for about
twelve years now, coming up to ten years
as Hon Secretary. The club became a
limited Company five years ago with all
the main officers of the club as Directors.
The club grew considerably through the
1980’s and 90’s and developed a vibrant
junior section with up to 200 boys and
girls from 6 to 16 years of age. With Colts
and two or three senior teams, this put a
lot of pressure on the two existing pitches
at the club, so an additional facility was
sought. After a couple of iterations, this
work is hopefully about to reach fruition
when planning permission is granted to
change an agricultural field to sports use,
sited just to the North of Okehampton.
The two existing pitches at the club
had deteriorated considerably through
over use over the years, and while
older members remembered playing
in ‘ploughed field’ type conditions, the
modern game demanded something
better. Over the past five or six years
improvements to the pitches were
planned and funding sought from the
RFU, Sport England and other bodies,
along with a lot of local fund raising
activity. Once funding was available the
work started in earnest and three years
ago the back pitch had new drainage
installed.
Following its return to use the following
year, work started on the front pitch.
It was out of use for 18 months, partly
due to the long hot Summer, but on 17th
November, when Okehampton hosted
Teignmouth in the tribute South West
1 League, the pitch was reopened. The
stand was also refurbished in the same
timescale and was reopened on the same
day and renamed The Ted Cann stand,
in memory of a long serving member
of the club. Ted had restarted rugby in
Okehampton after the Second World
War and was heavily involved in setting
up the club at its present site. A pre-
match lunch was held to celebrate the
opening, with local dignitaries invited to
attend, along with Ted’s family.
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