Rugby club to expand onto farmland

Every year the club, located next to the M40 on Windsor End, Beaconsfield, has to turn away scores of children wanting to join.
Increasing its capacity by around six new pitches will enable it to significantly increase membership which currently stands at 600 children up to the age of 18.
Club chairman Philip Miles is in talks with the Hall Barn Estate about leasing a large field on the opposite side of the motorway which would then have to be levelled and turfed. He hopes the new pitches - probably six plus a training area and shelter for officials - will be ready for the season after next. The new pitches would be reached via a two minute walk over a motorway footbridge.
Mr Miles said: "It's a big undertaking. As well as making the field flat, the top eight inches has to be taken off and a drainage layer put in. Then the top soil has to be sifted to get the stones out, and re laid.
"At the moment every year we turn people away. There are children living in Beaconsfield who have to play rugby in Marlow."
The project will cost around £100,000, most of which will have to achieved through fund-raising events. The first of these is a beer festival which takes place at the rugby club on July 3 and 4.
Founded in 1952, with three senior pitches, the club expanded for the first time eight years ago when it constructed eight new mini pitches.
It boasts among its former players Rochelle Clarke, who plays for the England, and Peter Elder, who has played for England's U16s.
For more information about the beer festival visit www.brfc.org.uk