Brighter times ahead for Ilkley Rugby Club (From Ilkley Gazette)

Brighter times ahead for Ilkley Rugby Club

7:00am Thursday 21st June 2012 in Sport

Ilkley Rugby Club can expect brighter times ahead after upgrading their floodlights.

Work has just been completed on installing new lighting units on the second team pitch at Stacks Field.

Previously the lighting was only good enough for the pitch to be illuminated for training sessions, but the £15,000 upgrade means the club could play matches on it.

Rugby operations manager Tom Gillon said: “The new units are a big improvement on the ones they replaced.

“It will be useful to be able to play floodlit matches if we need to.

“It will certainly be an option if we end up with a backlog of fixtures, but the prime aim is to upgrade our lighting for training.

“This is just another project which has enabled us to improve the quality of the facilities we have to offer.

“The money to buy the lights was raised by the membership.”

Some of the Ilkley players are already training for the new season.

Coach Rhys Morgan is leading skills sessions once a week at Stacks Field.

The club has already arranged two pre-season games to get their squad in shape for the new Yorkshire Division one campaign.

They will play Old Alwinians at Stacks Field on Saturday, August 18, and follow that with another home fixture against their old rivals from Lancaster,Vale of Lune.