THE STARLING FUND

Background:

• Our Midwives Legend, John Starling, generously bequeathed £45,000 to the Rugby Club in his Will.
• Rich Sexton met with Keith Long in New York, shortly before Keith died, and had a nostalgic chat about how they had been introduced to the Club as youngsters (see photo below of our dear friend, Fridge).
• Rich started discussions with various Midwives and school contacts to consider how funds could be raised and then spent on helping school leavers and young players to join the Club and kick off their adult rugby career.
• The idea developed that we could see John’s bequest as being the seed investment into a new fund. We felt strongly that John would approve of his gift being focused on helping young players to launch their adult rugby careers through Trinity RFC.
• The Starling Fund was born.

Club stalwart John Starling left £45,000 to the club when he died in 2020.

We used John’s generous bequest to create The Starling Fund.

The purpose of the fund is to support the recruitment and retention of young players to ensure we field two strong teams each weekend.

We do this by paying travel expenses for students away at uni and college, running an U22 side, subsidising student match fees, supporting social events and transport for some away game.

And funds were used to purchase the VEO cam used to record first team games.

Each year we allocate a spend budget from The Starling Fund.

And each year we look to top the fund back up.

Last season we spent just over £3,000.

For the 2024/25 season we propose to allocate £5,000 to support the club.

So, our 2024/25 fundraising target is £5,000.

The remaining bulk of the fund earns interest in a secure account.

The club has appointed a dedicated Starling Fund Officer (Julian Chenery) to oversee budgets, compliance and governance. He leads a sub-committee comprising JC, Rich Sexton, Jez Glynne-Jones and club Chairman Russel Jones,

John Starling’s legacy has made a huge improvement to the future of Trinity Rugby Club.

Find out how you too can help support us and sustain the great work of The Starling Fund.

Donating:

We hope your appetites are suitably whetted! If you would like to make a donation now, please can you make it to the following bank account:

Old Mid-Whitgiftian Rugby Club
Sort Code: 20-70-15
Account Number: 13831841
Reference: Starling Fund

Please can you send me a quick email via this link to let me know you have donated and I will then send you a form so that you can claim Gift Aid on your donation.

Please join in with our plans as much as you can. In the meantime, enjoy the photos below.

All the best,

Matron Jez