HRFC President, Jonathan Mangnall, says “Havant Rugby Club is delighted to continue what has been a long association with Bell Integration as a key (or the 1st XV shirt sponsor) sponsor of the club. As a completely amateur club, the financial support of our sponsors is essential and has helped us to develop all aspects of the club and allowed us to deliver our plan for sustainable rugby. It’s great to have the support of a local company and particularly an organisation of this size and having known a number of their leadership team for many years, I know that Bell takes great pleasure in investing in grass roots sport and the community. As a club sponsor, Bell has a presence at many of the home games where we host themed lunches for up to 200 guests; this includes staff members, customers and friends of the business.

Bell is very much a part of the HRFC rugby family with several staff members (including Sales Director, John Davenport and ITLM Director, Nick Whittle) having played for the club from a young age through to National League level. This close connection helps to reinforce the relationship as there’s a real understanding of the value that the sponsorship and support provides.”

In recent years HRFC has grown from strength to strength both on and off the pitch with a significant increase in playing members from the Mini and Juniors, Ladies and Girls, Academy and our senior men’s teams; this bucks the trend which has seen many clubs playing numbers reduce post Covid.. The 1st XV gained promotion to Level 5 2 seasons ago and are currently the highest ranked team in the newly formed Regional 1 South Central league. Our ambition as a club is to provide a great rugby experience to our players, coaches, supporters and visitors and I feel we are delivering against our plan for ‘sustainable rugby’ by monetising our clubhouse and reinvesting in the infrastructure to provide the best on and off field facilities – and an outstanding match day experience! The club is now open every day of the week supporting a wide range of uses including business meetings, community groups and social events and as we have a fully flood lit all weather Artificial Grass Pitch (AGP) we can also host rugby games 365 days of the year at any time night or day

The club is constantly evolving and we are currently refurbishing our changing facilities and gym and have plans to significantly improve our grass pitches and our parking facilities to support our growing rugby population. The support of Bell Integration and our other sponsors, patrons and members augments the revenue we drive from the club and has enables us to accelerate our plans for growth and constant improvement.

Our club motto is ‘Up the Hill’ and we really believe we are travelling in the right direction!

A pool table in a terraced house on Festing Grove was the setting for a business start-up in 1996 in Portsmouth, with an investment of £5K by its founder, Alastair Bell. Today the Systems Integrator has offices in Portsmouth, London, Wokingham, Hyderabad, Krakow, Singapore, Boston and is in the process of opening offices in Nairobi and Melbourne.

Alastair met John Davenport in the 90s while playing squash. They became friends and Alastair asked John to join his fledgling company, Bell Microsystems, which by then had offices in Commercial Road. The name later changed to Bell Integration.

John started playing with Havant in the junior section and colts (Under 19’s), going on to play for the senior section for 12 years. Nick Whittle played from the Under 7’s all the way through to the first team and is now First XV Manager. “Bell sees Havant RFC very much as a community club and it’s great to not only be part of the club and its hospitality facilities, but to also contribute to its ongoing success” says John Davenport.

Find out more about Bell Integration by visiting https://www.bell-integration.com/