Rugby club bosses fear £230,000 of private backing will be kicked into touch if sports lottery bosses turn down their application for a grant - for the third time.

Skipton Rugby Union Club President Harry Crabtree has just six days to draw up an appeal against the Sports England Lottery Panel's refusal to pay out about £442,000.

The 125 year-old club - the oldest sports club in the town - wants to revamp its facilities, including improving changing rooms, creating another pitch and floodlit training area, extending the club room and providing better facilities for disabled people at the Engine Shed Lane base in Skipton.

The project is expected to cost in the region of £680,000, and if the bid is successful the club will get about £430,000 from the lottery - 65 per cent.

It has to find the 35 per cent balance - about £230,000 - and has already secured pledges from various sources.

He said: "I can reveal that we have already found that support. I can't say at this stage who they are, but if we lose the grant, that capital injection will be lost to the community. It will be a tragedy."

He said club members were shattered that their second application had been turned down just before Christmas.

"We were very shocked. We thought we had presented a good case. I'm now handling the appeal myself and have until January 21 to submit it," said Mr Crabtree. He said the lottery bosses had not been convinced by the financial figures the club had presented for the projected income.

They also said there was poor evidence of need and there had been a failure to establish a working relationship with other site users.

Mr Crabtree said he believed the projected figures were realistic and he was surprised the lottery chiefs did not accept the evidence about other users of the site - like the archery club, the soccer training area and the plans for women's hockey and rounders.

The club runs three senior teams, junior teams from under sevens to under-15s and one ladies' team.

Its first application for money from the lottery pot, made in 1996, was rejected two years later. A renewed application was made in June 1999.

Skipton are joint third with Barnsley in Yorkshire division three, having won the last seven games out of the ten they have played so far this season.

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