The team, based at Bodicote Park, has publicly shown its support for Katharine House Hospice by adding the charity’s logo onto the sleeves of its shirts.

The idea was first made popular by football teams including Barcelona and Aston Villa who sacrificed sponsorship space in a bid to promote Unicef and Acorns Children Hospice respectively.

Ed Phillips, first team club captain said: “We always like to support charities but are not in a position to do that financially. Previously we have let people use the ground free of charge for charity events but wanted to find another way to show our support. Although we are not doing this in lieu of other sponsorship space, we decided to copy Barcelona and Aston Villa and add a charity logo onto our shirts to give the hospice a bit more exposure.

“Everyone at the club is over the moon about this and the feedback has been really positive. Hopefully it will work out well for us as well because we have since been approached by businesses asking if they can sponsor the other sleeve and be publicly linked to Katharine House Hospice through us.”

A decision on which charity to adopt was made at the rugby club’s annual general meeting when Katharine House topped the votes out of five nominated charities.

Sue Lane, fundraising manager at Katharine House Hospice said: “We were thrilled to receive a call from Ed Phillips asking if the club could support the hospice by adding our logo to their team shirts.

“This is an excellent, practical and unique way to promote the hospice in the local area and we were happy to agree. Our lottery and fundraising administrator Wendy Crosse went along last Saturday to meet the team and inspect the shirts and thought they were fabulous! We are very grateful to the rugby club.”
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