You are never too young to help! Harriet, aged five, left, and four-year-old Sophie (see photo) gave up part of their weekend to help dad Richard Wraith clear some stones off the planned new pitches at North Dorset RFC.
They were part of a team of club volunteers who spent a back-breaking morning picking up many of the large stones from the eight-and-a-half acre site, which will provide two new pitches as well as a training area at the club based at Slaughtergate in Gillingham. ‘It’s very important that everyone – minis, youth and seniors – all get involved, it’s a whole club operation,’ says club chairman Steve Keates.

‘This is where volunteers are so important – we couldn’t operate without them.’ Once the stones are cleared with the help of willing hands and a machine, the land will be reseeded, but Steve says the pitches will not be ready for next season. ‘It will be the season afterwards. We want to treat it with care, we take the view that it is a 30-year programme.’ He said when the pitches come into operation they will take the pressure of other pitches, which take a pounding during from the winter because of the number of games they play.

‘It’s a very good field and ideally situated for us,’ says Steve.