The early nineties became a very significant and rewarding time for Belgrave. The club was flying high and holding their own in Midlands 1 and under the coaching and leadership of Andy Sewell six playing members Dave Lamb, David (Lurch) Borland, Eddie Benison, Craig Broughton, Ivan Wright and Paul (PJ) Coupland were all playing regularly for Leicestershire.

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A History Of Belgrave R.F.C.

Times were good and with excellent results the feel good factor was high, Belgrave was on the move!
Running three senior teams and a Colts team was never a problem and there always seemed to be an abundance of players.
In the mid nineties New Parks Old Boys who were starting to struggle with fixtures etc were offered a life-line to go and play at Belgrave which they accepted. New Parks eventually became defunct and the nucleus of New Parks playing members joined forces with Belgrave.
 Players were filtered through from the 1st XV through to the 3rd XV once again creating strength in depth; also a dominating Veterans Team emerged.
Three County Cup Finals were reached by Belgrave such was the enthusiasm and commitment within the club. Loughborough Students (twice) and Hinckley were the adversary’s. The last encounter on May 11th 1999 was against Loughborough Students.
With the aid of the RFU, a Lottery grant and a lot of hard work by club members our new Clubhouse was eventually opened in September 1999. Dean Richards hitherto, the most successful Leicester Tigers Coach ever kindly agreed to officially open the new clubhouse.

 

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At a cost of well over £300,000 it was a state of the art building with six fully equipped centrally heated changing rooms, separate Referee and First Aid room and an Air Conditioned Function room that would seat over one hundred people with Licensed Bar, Kitchen and Disco.
Two special games were arranged for the occasion.
Belgrave Veterans played Leicester Thursday Veterans and Belgrave 1st Team played
The end of the Twentieth Century and the early Twenty First Century saw a significant downturn the number of players within the club.
Injuries and retirements played their part but the biggest and most damaging factor was the introduction of the “Paid Player”.
Clubs that could afford to pay players were “Ripping” the game apart.
Inducements and incentives of all types were offered, from Match Bonus’s and Petrol Payments, to Kit Allowances. It didn’t just stop with senior players many colts were also targeted causing certain teams to be unable to complete League Fixtures. It was a very disappointing and depressing time in our amateur game.  
Belgrave were now residing in Midland 3 East North but still managed supply three County players.
Greg Garner, John Hemsley and Dave Towl all made regular appearances with Dave Towl who also went on to Captain the side.
There was light at the end of the tunnel though, 2004 was the year that Belgrave received it’s “Seal Of Approval Certificate” an honour bestowed onto only two other clubs in Leicestershire Coalville and Kibworth. This certificate ensured that Belgrave had a futuristic plan of action and that everything was in order from Coaching, to Child Protection and from Health and Safety to the administration. It was a difficult project but one man Alan Tew volunteered to take it on. Alan with the help of John Goddard (Sec BRFC) and Nick Scott (Rugby Development Officer) spent weeks producing stats and reports finally achieving the end result

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It was also the year a grant was awarded for new Floodlights to be erected and a new pitch with a total area of 116mtrs x 66mtrs to be re aligned and reconstructed again John Goddard must be thanked for his commitment to this project.
A new lease was signed and Belgrave also gained the lease for the ground occupied by the Football Club.
The end of the 2003 – 2004 season saw the re introduction of the Presidents Day Fixture a relaxing and friendly affair after a tough league season. April 25th was the date, Belgrave was the venue and a team consisting of various Leicestershire club players provided the opposition. The Presidents Team managed by Andy Sewell finishing up the winners by 41 – 27.
2004 saw a venue change for Belgrave’s annual presentation evening. Traditionally it has always been held at our headquarters but by way of a change it was decided to hold it at the Tigers Ground in the Underwood Suite.

The 2004 – 2005 leagues were restructured from 10 games to 12 games. New venues included Coalville, Grimsby and Lincoln, as well as Glossop, Paviours, Loughborough, Notts Moderns, Mellish, Matlock, West Bridgeford and Ilkeston.
Elected captains for the 2004 – 2005 Season were:
1st XV Greg Garner,    2nd XV James Regan,   3rd XV TBA
Colts XV Adam Davey.
Aug 2004 saw the removal of the original floodlights (to make way for the new ones) and the re-positioning, re-sizing (from 86mts x 62mts playing area to 96mts x 66mts playing area) and marking of the First Team Pitch. September 2004 also saw the re aligning and resizing of the Second Team Pitch making it the same size as the original first team pitch and now parallel to the First Team Pitch.
23rd Sept 2004, work has now started on the replacing of the original floodlights. Concrete bases approx 6 feet square were laid ready for the erection of the lights. Unfortunately because of legal reasons we were too late and unable to re-construct the new pitch. This now we be carried out in the spring / summer of 2005
Sept 2004 saw the presentation (On Loan to Belgrave) of a unique set of early Rolleston Cup Medals (19 in all) owned by the Anstee Family. These medals were won in the early Twentieth Century from 190  - 1950.
The 04th October saw the erection of the Floodlight Masts (8 in all). Because of the poor weather conditions, work on the Floodlights was exceptionally slow Oct 27th still hasn’t seen the completion of this task. Unfortunately being October and having no lighting is affecting the Evening Training for all the playing squad.
Sat Oct 23rd was the official presentation day of our (Belgrave RFC) “Seal Of Approval Certificate”. This presentation took place at the Leicester Tigers Football Club at half time in a Heineken Cup Match between the Tigers and Calvisano a match in which the Tigers won 37pts to 6pts.
The presentation was made by Neil Haynes    and accepted on behalf of BRFC by Roger & Craig Broughton (Father & Son).  
Thurs Nov 18th 2004 Finally the new Floodlights are complete reset and tested.
By the end of Nov 2004 a feasibility study and plans were being discussed in view of an extension to the clubhouse which would include another function room, a fully equipped Gymnasium and more much needed storage space.
Despite a poor start to the season, by Christmas, Belgrave were back on track winning 7 from a possible 12 games.
A decision not to travel to Hereford in the Intermediate cup was a blow and has meant a ban for Belgrave from this competition in the 2005 – 2006 Season.
However with a bye in the first of the round of the County Cup and 2 excellent wins against Lutterworth and Coalville (both in extra time) led to a Semi Final match at home to Leic’s Lions (March 06th) and although this game proved to be the end of our cup run it was by no means a walkover. This was the team that were flying high in Midlands One and had a 100% winning record. This was the team that had just reached National level and would be playing teams such as Nuneaton, Kendal, Rugby Lions and Fylde. This was the team that had come to Belgrave thinking it would be just another training session, how wrong they were. Pride and passion were the two virtues in our favour. Admittedly we were put under enormous pressure in the first half but the harder they tried the stronger and more resolute our defence became. In fact 19 – 0 at half time didn’t really reflect the way the first 40 had gone. We could have and should have had at least one if not two tries in this first half.
The second half belonged to Belgrave. We came out stronger and more determined than ever. This was not going to be the predicted walkover most people thought. After spending long periods in their half we were rewarded with a well worked pushover try scored by Robert Kyle. Shortly after Dave Lamb scored another try John Hemsley converted both. 
The Lions scored a dubious try (the ball not being grounded) and this again was converted.
The final outcome was a 16 – 26 defeat