IN AN exciting coup for the Chinchilla River Rats, a club football signed by the premiership-winning Queensland Reds team will be raffled off at the Rats’ home game this weekend, along with four tickets to the champions’ upcoming match against the Auckland Blues.
The Reds-versus-Blues game will be held in just over a fortnight’s time, on June 4 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Money raised from raffle ticket sales will help to keep the club powering into the future, as players relish the privilege this Saturday of playing in front of a home crowd for the only time this season.
The Chinchilla River Rats is the ‘sister’ club to the Condamine Cods, playing regular home games at Condamine as part of the Down Rugby Union’s C-grade competition.
“We play at Bulldog Park once every year and it’s always the season highlight for our club,” said Chinchilla River Rats president, Brendan Olm.
“It obviously a bit harder for supporters to get to Condamine for all of our home games, but when it’s held in Chinchilla we always get a good crowd of family and friends coming along.
“We appreciate the Bulldogs letting us use their facilities. We also train during the week at Bulldog Park which is very convenient for us.”
The Cods will also play at Bulldog Park this weekend. In an exciting ‘western derby’ day of club rugby union, A-grade and C-grade will play against the Roma Echidnas, while the Cods B-grade will take on the St George Frillnecks.
Registration fees and occasional raffles, battery drives and garage sales assist to keep the Chinchilla River Rats alive throughout the season, but it’s rarer for the club to have impressive sporting memorabilia and first grade game tickets to raffle off.
Tickets cost $2 each or $5 for three tickets. TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED BY MESSAGING THE CHINCHILLA RIVER RATS FACEBOOK PAGE. First prize is the two double passes to the Reds-Blues game at Suncorp, while second prize is the Rats club football signed by the Reds.
“The Queensland Reds have been in red hot form this season and there are some big star players in the side. No doubt it would be exciting to see them host the Blues on June 4,” Olm said.
“It would be great to see the community get behind the Rats for their game this season, and enter the draw to win these big prizes.”
