Phase One complete at Bicton

Exeter Chiefs and England international Jack Nowell underlined the club's ever-growing links with Bicton College when he helped to celebrate the completion of Phase One of a brand new sports hall at the East Devon venue.

As Bicton College gears up for the 2014-2015 academic year, the new sports hall will provide extended space for the increasing number of students studying Sports Performance and Excellence at the College.

The completion of Phase One marks a significant milestone in its construction with the 26-week build due for completion in early January.

Bicton is one of three local Colleges - the others being Truro and Ivybridge - who help form part of the Exeter Chiefs Rugby Academy, helping to nurture the next breed of local talent to come into the senior ranks at the Aviva Premiershop Club.

Nowell, a product of the Chiefs Academy system, helped marked the occasion alongside Chair of Devon County Council, Councillor George Gribble, at a special ceremony this week.

Built by leading construction and infrastructure company Morgan Sindall, the new hall will supply space for a broad range of sporting activitie, including cricket nets, badminton courts, basketball nets, changing rooms, a landscaped outside area and a PE store. There will also be the option to have a full-size basketball court as well as four small courts.

The project evolved as a result of the move of Mill Water School to the Bicton College site. The hall has been designed and built to be a shared facility with use timetabled for both the School and the College. With funding support for the £1.3m cost in part from Devon County Council, the new sports hall is being shaped to the specific requirements of the School, the College and all of their students, with the construction in turn evolving around this.

As David Henley, Principal explains: "Bicton College is pleased to acknowledge the support of Devon County Council in the construction of the new Sports Hall. The new space will enable our College Sports Maker to extend the already vast range of enrichment and sporting activities available to our students.

"It will also add to the excellent provision for students within the prestigious Exeter Chiefs Rugby Academy and the young women who join us for the first time in September as part of these AASE (Achieving Academic and Sporting Excellence) Rugby Academy."