Last Sunday saw the Tour De France Grand Depart come through West Yorkshire and more importantly our very own Holmfirth, where the crowds gathered and partied like never before throughout the weekend. With the weather being really kind to us it was an occasion that likened our town to the Costas of Spain or the French Riviera.

Christian Prudhomme director of the tour De France said of the West Yorkshire section, “the Yorkshire people have embraced the occasion and had raised the bar for all future organisers of this event and it was the best 2 days of the tour he had ever known”.

Here at Underbank we opened our doors to campers and parking, a decision we took nearly 6 months ago. The process has proved to be a long learning curve as well as pushing us into lots of maintenance that has now been completed sooner rather than later. A small, but dedicated team of club members, officials and supporters have worked tirelessly over this period to ensure the success of the occasion and my wholehearted thanks go to all club members who have given up many hours of their time to ensure that the weekend went smoothly.

Early signs were that we were not going to do well with the bookings, but overall we can now say that the adventure of running a campsite instead of a rugby league club was a great experience and reasonably successful. Having met some very nice people who joined us for the weekend and the experience of doing so many breakfasts on Sunday morning was quite rewarding, and again another steep learning curve. Once again I can’t thank enough all of the members who gave a little or a lot of time in this enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Gerald Parr, Club President