The Richmond Athletic Association (RAA) is delighted to announce that it has signed a three-year agreement with Kew Park Rangers Football Club (KPR) for the club to use the Richmond Athletic Ground (RAG) as a training ground for many of its junior football sides and as a training and match venue for the KPR men’s first-team.

KPR was founded in 1999, its primary home remains North Sheen Recreation Ground in Kew but the club’s membership has expanded at such a rate in recent years that it now uses several venues in the borough. Today the club has over 1,000 playing members starting from toddlers all the way up through the age groups for both sexes and with an adults and veterans section.

From this September, the agreement sees KPR increasing their current training provision at the RAG on Saturday mornings as well as training under floodlights on Monday and Wednesday evenings and playing matches on one of the outer pitches on Saturday afternoons.

RAA CEO, Jimmy Wallace, commented: “We have really enjoyed having KPR playing here during the past season and are delighted to be extending this partnership for at least the next three seasons with an increased level of pitch usage at the ground. Like Richmond Rugby, KPR are a focal point of the local community and both clubs take great pride in providing first-class delivery of coaching and sporting facilities for people of all ages and sexes.”

KPR Chair, Steve van Dyk, commented: “RAA has excellent pitches, the ground is well located and offers great overall facilities for our members. The welcome we have had in our first year could not have been warmer. We are very excited that many more of our members and their families will get to enjoy this first-rate facility. This is also an important step for our growing club as our rapid growth meant that we had become rather fragmented across a range of different sites. With this move we are able to get many more of our teams in one place and this will no doubt further enhance the community spirit that already exists within KPR. We are delighted to be partnering with RAA and hope to build on this in future seasons.”

For more information on the RAA and the wide-range of facilities available please visit: www.the-raa.co.uk