New Bridgnorth clubhouse ‘is for everyone in county’

The All Blacks had their first taste of match day experience at the facility when they hosted local rivals Newport in a pre-season friendly at the Edgar Davies Ground on Friday evening last week. More than 600 spectators were in attendance to witness Bridgnorth lose the match 48-40.

On their special night, Bridgnorth fought back from 45-21 down to narrow the gap to 45-40 before Conor Barker sealed the win for Newport with a penalty.

Fruition

However, the scoreline was of secondary importance as two years of hard work from various Bridgnorth members finally came to fruition.

Bridgnorth secretary Ian George, who also serves a variety of other roles across the club, said Bridgnorth’s new facilities are “second to none” across the region and will serve as a “great community asset” for the Shropshire community.

But George believes more than anything that the new facilities represent the club’s vast transformation from its humble roots.

“From where we came from as an old club with some stables out the back to move to our stellar new facilities which are probably second to none especially in Shropshire anyway,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in Shropshire with the type of facilities we have now. A lot of hard work and money has gone into the project and we’ve had no help from any charities, lottery funding or government funding.

“So it was quite a challenge but we got over the line and everyone is really impressed the facilities.

“It’s a big business now, it’s not just a rugby club, which is going to be self funded. We’ve got a big loan to pay back and it’s a great community asset.

“It’s not just for rugby nowadays, it’s for the whole of Bridgnorth and the whole of the Shropshire community.”

The clubhouse has been open for the past three months, but a number of ex-captains and former players returned to mark the unveiling.

The celebrations extended into Saturday and Sunday with street food and various attractions available for young and old.

George added: “We played our first pre-season friendly last Friday. There was about 600 to 700 people watching that game and Newport were very impressed with the facilities.

“It went very well. We built it and the capacity for the function room will be about 160 to 170 but we got 210 people in there on Friday afternoon.

“We officially opened it. It was a great occasion, we had some of the old boys and then we had some more ex-players and ex-captains from over the years.

“So it’s very much about preserving old memories and creating new ones for us as a club.”