Bridgnorth Rugby Club vows to carry on after blaze

Bridgnorth Rugby Club officials today vowed to 'beg, borrow and steal' to make sure one of its busiest weekends went ahead despite being hit by arsonists.

A fire ripped through a storage building at Severn Park yesterday morning, leaving the club looking at a potential £30,000 bill.

Steward Ian George said the club, currently celebrating its 50th year, would be welcoming over 500 people this weekend for a junior competition on Sunday while three senior teams were at home on Saturday.

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"The fire involved our store unit on the Severn Park where we store our post protectors, corner flags for the pitches, the white line markers, training bibs, rugby balls, the treatment table and 20 to 30 tackle bags for the seniors and juniors," he said.

"The building itself has been deemed unsafe because the fire was so intense it damaged the entire building. It's a big loss to the rugby club."

He said training would be cancelled for a few weeks as the fire had also destroyed the electrical supply to the floodlights.

"During the week we have up to 100 adults training and 200 juniors down there on Wednesday and Thursday nights," he said. "This weekend is one of the busiest of the year because we have got three matches on the Saturday and about 10 junior rugby matches, which includes a round robin competition.

We're expecting between 500 and 600 people to turn up. Hopefully we can beg, borrow and steal to make sure everything goes ahead in the meantime.

"We are also helping out with the Bridgnorth Santa Dash over the weekend because the organisers are going to use our facilities, which included part of the electrical supply."

Sergeant Bob Matthews, of West Mercia Police, said it was still too early to say what had caused the fire but investigations were continuing.