Fylde Rugby Club
Sports venues and good food don't generally go together in the same sentence. Perhaps if you're fortunate enough to be enjoying upmarket corporate hospitality at a test match or at the races you can expect a decent bite, but for most of us soggy pies and plastic hot dogs are about as good as it gets when it comes to food and sport.
So for long-suffering local sports fans, the new-look Fylde Rugby Club (view a 360 movie) is a real fillip. The rugby club - currently sitting at the wrong end of National Three North -- has been struggling in recent years as the sport has morphed from amateur to professional. So the decision was made to sell off some lucrative land for residential development and plough the proceeds back into the club in the form of a state-of-the-art clubhouse and function suite which cost £1.2 million and opened in October 2005. The catering is handled exclusively by Lytham's AA-rosetted Chicory, which with its exciting Med-influenced cuisine is about as far from pie and chips as you can possibly get.
If you want to try out the new facilities as a non-member of the club, you've got a couple of options. The first is to attend one of Fylde's home fixtures which take place every fortnight on a Saturday afternoon. The pre-match lunch is held in the main function room -- the Woodland Suite -- on the first floor which has great views overlooking the pitch. It seats up to 150 people and has its own kitchens and bar as well as a roomy balcony area. The cost for the lunch (catered by Chicory), match ticket and programme is £24 although Sugarvine readers can get £4 off the price until the end of December (see below). You can book as an individual, couple or group with communal club seating on large round tables that seat 10. It makes for a different and enjoyable afternoon out, combining good food, company and sport in one package.
The other option is to hire the facilities at Fylde, whether it be for parties, weddings, funerals, or corporate events. It can be with or without catering and as well as the Woodland Suite there are a couple of smaller alternatives -- the International Room, which has the same facilities but caters for 50, or the Arthur Bell Room on the ground floor which seats 20 and is best suited to meetings. The new-look Fylde, with its Chicory connection, is sure to give the usual hotel suspects a run for their money.
Exclusive Sugarvine Offer: Mention Sugarvine when you book a match-day meal before the end of December and get a £4 discount off the cost (£24 which includes pre-match meal, programme and match ticket).
Fylde Rugby Club
Woodlands Memorial Ground
Blackpool Road
Ansdell
Tel: 01253 734733
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