CHRISTMAS has come early for a local sports club.

Bolton Rugby Union Football Club has been awarded a £126,315 government grant to help refurbish their clubhouse.

The scheme, costing a total of £214,247, will see new changing facilities, a weight training area and a meeting house constructed at the club's headquarters in Avenue Street off Chorley Old Road. One of the club's pitches will also be extended.

The Sport England Lottery Fund grant will go towards the costs of all the revamp schemes.

Club chairman Clive Nightingale, landlord at the Howcroft Inn in Pool Street, said the grant will help develop rugby union in Bolton for years to come.

Mr Nightingale said: "It is absolutely superb news for both the club and the sport in Bolton.

"By extending our pitch we can offer it out to more organisations who want to use it - like schools and other rugby clubs. It will benefit a whole host of different organisations.

"We built the extension to the club, where we moved to in 1998, but we have outgrown it."

The voluntary sector club provides the only junior rugby union available in Bolton.

Club officials said part of the grant will be used to help develop future junior initiatives and increase links with Bolton's ethnic minority community. The club, boasting nine junior and four adult squads, was formed in 1872.

Sport England representatives presented club officials with the award in a ceremony at their headquarters off Chorley New Road yesterday.

SMILES ALL ROUND: Captain of the U16's Danny Joseph is pictured with club captain Les Towler, chairman, Clive Nightingale and Siraz Natha