YOUNG rugby players are the latest beneficiaries of fundraisers who have had their eyes down for decades.

Since it first began 37 years ago, Kidlington charity Bingo Club has raised more than £145,000 for local good causes.

The most recent group to benefit was the Oxford Cavaliers Rugby Club youth team, which was given £500 for new kit.

And more than 50 bingo players turned out to see the rugby players unveil their new gear.

Mark Revill, father of 13-year-old rugby player Jay, said: “I think if they didn’t get the kit it would have had to have been raised by a charity event or the parents would have had to fund it all.

“I think it is very kind of them.”

The bingo club began in 1978 as a one-off fundraiser for a new body scanner at the Churchill Hospital, but turned into regular fixture and soon managed to bring in £250 a week for good causes.

Chairman Pete Dillon, a retired Oxford City Council lorry driver, said he helped out on the first charity night 37 years ago after a request from his late cousin’s husband.

Grandfather-of-one Mr Dillon said: “A man called Gerald was fundraising for a body scanner for the Churchill Hospital so he said he was going to start a bingo club.

“Then my cousin died at the age of 36 and her husband said he wanted money saved from her funeral to go towards the body scanner, so I helped out at the bingo club.”

Mr Dillon said he and Gerald were then asked to turn the bingo club into a regular event to help out the local community. He added: “I didn’t think it would go this far because Gerald said he would only do one for one week.”

Since then hundreds of people have turned up for the weekly bingo games, which have helped fund a hot drinks machine at John Radcliffe Hospital, a bench for Sobell House and a horse for the Riding for the Disabled Association.

Mr Dillon, 65, said: “We had a letter from the rugby club asking if we could help so we asked them what they needed. They wrote back saying they wanted some kit for their youth team which cost £500.”

In addition to the new rugby kit, the club unveiled a new £1,800 defibrillator outside Exeter Hall and has recently paid for a first aid responder for South Central Ambulance Service in Bicester.

Maurice Billington, Kidlington Parish Council chairman, said: “The Bingo Club work very hard because they do so much stuff for charity and I think they are brilliant.”

Mr Dillon, who now lives in Bicester, said he was delighted at being able to help so many people over the years.