I would like to make an apology to some of this seasons sponsors. Some of you renewed your pitchside boards and we thank you for your ongoing support of Billingham Rugby Club. What we were not expecting was the number of new board sponsors this season. With only a couple of weeks to go before the season got under way we only had several new sponsors asking for boards but then we had an overwhelming number of last minute confirmations, in fact over 20!! This caused us a major problem – we did not have enough fencing to put these on.

We have a Development Plan for the club and one component of this is to install pitch side barriers around the main pitch as part of our grounds development projects. Unfortunately this was not planned (or budgeted) for another 2 years. With the interest in pitchside boards we made the decision to invest now in new pitch side barriers. Unfortunately these have a lead time on manufacturing and delivery and then they have to be installed. As you can see today the project is now well under way but this does mean that some of you have not had your new boards erected from the beginning of the season and it is for this I apologise on behalf of the club.

The good news is that, their display will now be an order of magnitude better than what we had before. Not only that but with them being raised, they will be more visible, they will not be ‘butted' up next to the ones either side and will be far more prominent. At the same time, having the barriers not only provides safety to both players and spectators, but having them fixed and set back means that everyones view of both the match and your adverts will provide a far better experience all round.

Also, this changes the aesthetic look of our main pitch as well as satisfy representative level rugby safety requirements. With this in mind, we have already offered our pitch to the County for representative rugby for the end of the season. This will make our main pitch one of the best in the region with respect to playing quality, safety and all round visibility.

So, once again, apologies for the late arrival of your boards and again thank you for your continued support of our, or should I say your, rugby club.