A LOCAL rugby team has found a helping hand through a generous East Lancashire landlady.

For Pat Sharkey, of the Commercial Hotel, Colne, has agreed to sponsor Colne and Nelson Rugby Club to enable them to buy new shirts.

A fund-raising day was held at the Skipton Road pub, and included a pool tournament, rounds of Play Your Cards Right and Sponsor a Song, where people were nominated to sing on the karaoke and had to pay a pound to back out.

There was a raffle for a Robbie Williams CD which raised £58 and Pat donated proceeds from the pub's video machine, too.

The amount raised totalled £500, and being involved in the local children's home, Pat decided to split the money between the two causes. And she put in another £250 for the rugby team herself, to cover the cost of twenty new kits.

She said: "It's great to get involved with a local sports team as the Commercial is very much a sport orientated pub. It's also very satisfying to help a local charity.

"I enjoy helping those less fortunate than ourselves and I have fostered and worked alongside social workers in the past."