AN excited crowd gathered at Minchinhampton Rugby Club this afternoon to watch Princess Anne open their new clubhouse.

The £370,000 development has been a slow moving project, five years ago the club has nothing but portable trade buildings and a muddy field.

Thanks to generous grants, donations and hefty fundraising efforts the clubhouse has finally been put to use.

Club President Julian Athawes welcomed Her Royal Highness thanking her for attending the ceremony.

HRH made a short speech where she praised the development of the rugby club.

She said: “I have watched the development taking place at this rugby club for a long time and I am pleased it is finally finished.

“My horses seem to have noticed a great deal of noise at the club recently and that says a great deal about the impressive membership you have here.

“I wish you all the best for the future.”

In honour of the occasion a rugby match was played between Mike Tindall’s guests XV and a Gloucestershire RFU guest XV.

Afterwards, Tindall expressed his pleasure at the new clubhouse.

He said: “It’s a great facility and we need to take advantage of it.

“We have 300 juniors playing on a Sunday and it’s extremely important they have somewhere to go after the game.

“Minch is a great community and a very family orientated club, it was no good when it was just a field and a few portable buildings.”

“I’ve played three games for the team so far and I hope I can play a few more.”

Princess Anne stayed to watch the match and presented the winning team with a trophy.