Skipton RFC, one of Yorkshire's oldest rugby union clubs, is celebrating its official 125th birthday in November, and is planning a season-long celebration of sporting and social events.

The Skipton 125 season will include a special invitation game on Sunday, November 7 - the actual birthday - a cabaret dinner on September 25, a Bonfire Night special for the youngsters on Friday, November 5, and a nostalgia night for former players.

The big day itself will see the club's Coulthurst Memorial Ground at Sandylands turned into a carnival. There will be the famous Tetley shire horses on parade, bands, refreshment stalls, and a Presidents' XV game between Skipton and Ilkley, who were its first recorded opponents after becoming an official member of the Rugby Football Union.

Members have also organised the biggest raffle in the club's history, with a first prize of a weekend for two in the New York Plaza Hotel, plus free air travel and £125 spending money each.

Other prizes include £125 in cash, a family trip on the Settle-Carlisle railway, first class return rail fares to London and 125 cans of Tetley's bitter!

Skipton 125 is more than just a celebration. It is also a major fundraising project to help raise cash for massive improvements at Sandylands which will take the club into the new millennium.

President Harry Crabtree said: "Records of the early years of rugby union can be a little sketchy but we are certainly one of the oldest clubs in Yorkshire.

"Obviously we could not let such a historic occasion go by without marking it in a special way. But, whilst celebrating the past, we are also using Skipton 125 to look to the future.

"We are at present involved in negotiating a very large grant from the Sports Lottery Fund which will allow us to transform our clubhouse and improve the ground until it is one of the best in Yorkshire.

"The policy of the lottery is to match any funds the club can raise itself, either in cash or by voluntary work, at a rate of almost two to one.

"We are very proud to have been at the heart of the district's sporting and social life for 125 years."

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