ROYAL Wootton Bassett chairman Chris Elias says it was a great occasion to see the club host an Aviva A clash between Gloucester v Exeter Braves on Monday night.

Around 1000 peopled turned out in the thick fog to watch the game, which ended 62-0 to the Braves.

While the result might not have been what Gloucester were looking for, Elias thinks Bassett’s facilities proved to be more than adequate to host the fixture and, following some glowing feedback from both sides, he hopes the Ballards Ash club will get the opportunity to do so again next year.

“I was there most of the day and it was very good really, a lot of hard work went into the club to get the pitch up together and make sure we were prepared for that kind of crowd,” said Elias.

“The comments from both Exeter and Gloucester have been very positive, they have been brilliant.

“I think it is probably the first time Gloucester have played a home game outside of Gloucester, so the the fact it has come all the way out here to Royal Wootton Bassett is a tremendous accolade to the club.

“It’s something that works well and I think they are going to try and do it with other clubs too next year.

“Hopefully, if they do that, we will be in with a shout to have another one here next year.

“We would love to to it again to be honest. It was just a shame about the weather being so misty and foggy.

“We think we had about a 1000 here and there was a review on Exeter’s website which said they thought it was a very good crowd for a Monday night.”

While the off-the-pitch advantages are clear to see, not only was it good for Bassett to get a bumper crowd through the turnstiles on a Monday night, the chairman believes it was hugely beneficial to have something which involved everyone at the club.

“A game like that certainly brings all aspects of the club together, from the seniors, down to the players and the juniors,” added Elias, who says the club will now have to wait until next year to see if they will be able to host another Aviva A fixture.

“They all had to get together in order to coordinate something like that and they are all volunteers.

“No-one is paid to do this sort of stuff and I think it gave everyone a tremendous buzz afterwards too.”