A RUGBY club has landed a £174,000 Lottery grant - by encouraging women and children to play the sport.

The cheque was handed over to Eccles Rugby Union Club today by Sport England officials.

It will pay for a huge extension to the clubhouse and provide four new changing rooms with en-suite showers, toilets for disabled people, a floodlit training area and a second team pitch. The total cost of the scheme is £240,000.

Sport England's regional director Sheldon Phillips said: ''The strength of the proposal was the club's understanding of equality issues.''

Chairman of the 104-year-old club Mark Dutton said: ''We built new changing rooms in 1993, but since then we have expanded so much we can't cope with the numbers we have attracted.

''We now have 250 junior players with teams from under-sevens to under-16s. We also have a women's team. The grant will mean the women's team will have their own segregated changing rooms - at the moment they have to play on a Sunday and train on a Wednesday when no one else uses the club.''

The club has forged important links with local schools, including the neighbouring St Patrick's RC High, by staging coaching courses.

Mark said: ''The club is run entirely by unpaid volunteers, yet we have 35 qualified coaches. Lottery grants are difficult to come by and the key was the hard work put in by our secretary, Andy Brunt.''

The club raised £25,000 themselves and secured loans from the Rugby Football Union and a brewery.

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