Douglas RFC To Celebrate Grand Opening Of New Pitches

On Friday 24th June, Douglas RFC will celebrate the official opening of their new pitches at the club’s grounds in Castletreasure from 7pm.

The club originally rented pitches in Moneygourney but they secured a long-term lease form Cork City Council on 14 acres of land in Castletreasure.

Significant work has taken place over the last number of years to install two full-sized grass pitches – the first of which opening two years ago and the second pitch opening last year.

“The site when we got it first, it was 14 acres but it was disappearing into a valley so there was an awful lot of groundworks and everything else that had to be done to get two pitches onto it,” Douglas RFC Honorary Secretary Dave Chaloner told Munster Rugby.

“It wasn’t straightforward and it wasn’t immediately accessible. There has been a massive amount of work undertaken in there. It’s a credit to all of the volunteers and club members, different bits and pieces that they all helped out on. It was a massive achievement.”

The club have a lot more plans in place in the short and medium term. Planning permission has been granted for floodlights on one of the grass pitches while there are plans to develop changing rooms.

Minis training at Douglas RFC

There is also an exciting development with the installation of an all-weather pitch and the club hopes that it will be close to completion by the beginning of September.

Chaloner hopes that the new facilities and the plans they have for future upgrades will lead to continued growth for the club.

“We’re back now to a situation where we have two adult teams back competing which we hadn’t had in a long time. We have about 50 adults training.”

Chaloner continued:

“Equally because we have our own pitches and the investment that has gone into it, everything inside the gate is tangible. Both parents and adult members who come up and look at what we have achieved can see that it’s a club with ambition and a club that looks more professional as you come in the gate rather than two rented pitches with a container in the corner which is what we were operating out of for 10 or 15 years.

“It has definitely given us a better profile from what we had.”

The club will be celebrating their achievements on Friday evening with a BBQ and fun family activities from 7pm in Castletreasure. Douglas RFC encourage all club members, families and friends to attend on the night.

Michael McGrath TD and Cllr Seamus McGrath will be in attendance.