Youth Rugby Club Scoops Lotto Grant

A youth rugby club called the Hackney Bulls has been awarded a £9,900 Lotto grant in the Nation Lottery Awards for All scheme. The club heard that its application for funding had been successful earlier this month.

David Gittings, from the Hackney Bulls Youth Rugby Club, said that the rugby club deserved the funding and congratulated the coaching staff at the club:

We are delighted that Hackney Bulls has been recognised as a good cause by the Lottery.

We have grown to a membership of over 130 and are probably the fastest growing youth rugby club in the country.

Our success in bringing rugby to inner-city children and young people has largely been down to the fantastic coaching, the enthusiasm of our teams and the support of the parents.

The youth rugby club is for children as young as six-years-old, up to sixteen. The club meets every Sunday and plays for 2 hours in training sessions or matches. The club introduces younger children to the game of rugby by teaching them tag-rugby.

This injection of funds will allow us to employ new coaches, buy new equipment and roll out an exciting program of events in 2009, including school holiday Rugby Camps in local parks, and rugby taster sessions in local primary and secondary schools.

Our next Rugby Camp will be in the February half-term in Clissold Park.

Thanks to the National Lottery, the game of rugby will be taught to more youngsters in Hackney.