A TRIPLE-header of wheelchair rugby matches was held to celebrate the Dorset Destroyers' third anniversary.

Although the club was founded in March 2014, it has been three years since it first began training. Since then it has expanded to the point it is running out of funds for wheelchairs.

The Destroyers invited new clubs Bristol Bears and Northampton Saints to Poole to play in a day of friendlies at the weekend.

They hope to turn Dorset into a powerhouse of disability sports centred around the Rossmore Leisure Centre.

Secretary Sue Coombs said the profile of the sport was growing but the club needed more support to expand.

"Grassroots wheelchair rugby is a vital part of the sport. If we want to attract more people to the sport, we need to have more people knowing about the sport and being able to access it," she said.

"Wheelchair rugby is opening up to more people with disabilities and a new version has been introduced called wheelchair rugby 5s, more bore based around the Invictus Games version, and it seems to be attracting a lot more disabled people who could not play in the traditional version."

The club has recently set up wheelchair-centred versions of several other sports including tennis, badminton and shooting, and most recently the Dorset Devils Wheelchair Basketball Club.

Club chairman Nick Coombs said interest in the latter had "exploded".

"We had so many people asking for us to open a wheelchair basketball club because the nearest is 40 miles away.

"Being a bunch of mates, we can set things up very easily.

"We have a quick chat about it at one of our committee meetings and everyone just says 'yes, let’s go for it'. The only problem we have is trying to find funding, as we rapidly grow in both sports. We are running out of wheelchairs due to demand."

John Colgan, club welfare officer, said: "We have great plans which are slowly taking hold, and with a great centre manager like Sean Gabriel behind us, staff that will readily help and players who really want to make this work, it will happen."

The club is holding a 24 hour wheelchair rugby marathon on Saturday, March 17, aiming to raise £10,000 and beat the current world record. They will be helped by the Royal Signals Corps, with support from 4Com and the leisure centre.

Visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/24hourwrugby to donate.

To contact any of the clubs call Sue Coombs on 07747586006.