PLYMPTON Victoria are leaving no stone unturned as they bid to find a new ground after finding themselves homeless.
The club have been playing at Marsh Mills for more than a decade after taking over the pitch from Prince Rock Woodland Fort.
They have been successfully sharing the St Bonifice Catholic College sports ground with the Plymouth Devils speedway team, whose track is on the adjacent field.
However, the trust that looks after the land for the school have recently granted the Devils a new lease for the whole site and the speedway club have told Plym Vic to leave after rejecting a financial offer from them to stay.
“We were aware that there were going to be changes at the ground with speedway taking on the main lease and all other parties renting through them,” said Plym Vic team manager Chris Hunt. “And we prepared and entered a bid, but unfortunately come the day of the race we were undone by a last minute offer from another undisclosed party.
“We are now in the process of trying to find somewhere to call home and then moving the club’s kit to that new location. The ideal scenario would be to find a long-term pitch tenure in Plympton with enough space so we can safely store all our equipment, but I think that may be unlikely. The more realistic prospect may be to work in a more piecemeal fashion.
“However, the support we have received from the RFU, Devon, the Plymouth Combination and other clubs in the area has been great. We just need to find that elusive local rugby-loving landowner with some land to spare.”
He added: “There is a lot of hard work to be done and with a bit of luck we will resolve this bump in the road and get on with the job of preparing for the challenges that a new season brings with the added spice of a completely new league structure for us.”
Plym Vic are currently training at St Mary’s Field in Plympton on a Thursday but they are looking at alternatives for both training and playing matches.
They are taking to other sports teams and schools in the area, plus sounding out any landowners in and around Plympton.
Unless they can find a ‘new’ field for senior men’s rugby in the next month or so, then they might have to share facilities with another club for a short spell or hire the new RFU artificial grass pitch that being installed at Ivybridge. However, playing there would mean they would have to change their kick-off time away from mid-afternoon on a Saturday.
The club say the last resort would be to become ‘nomads’ for a season and just play away games.
Plym Vic admit the scenario they find themselves in is far from ideal, especially with just two months to go the start of the season. They had a really encouraging campaign in 2017/18 and want to try and build on that in the new-look Devon Merit Table Two South and West.
If anyone can help Plym Vic they should contact Chris Hunt on Chris Hunt plymptonvictoria@yahoo.com