£300,000 grant saves inner-city sports club

London's largest inner-city sports club has been rescued following a grant to prevent its home ground being sold off.

The future of the 12-acre site in Earlsfield has been secured with a £300,000 donation from the charitable arm of the London Marathon. The playing fields are shared by the Spencer Club and the Battersea Ironsides Sports Club. They host more than 100 junior and adult teams playing rugby, football, cricket, tennis, hockey, squash and lacrosse.

Marathon chiefs provided the cash to purchase the site from its landlord, Aviva Investors, with a further £50,000 coming from the Government's grassroots sports agency, Sport England.

Earlsfield is the seventh playing field to be saved for sports and recreation since the London Marathon trust was established by race founders Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981.

The Spencer Club was formed in 1872 and named after the local landowner, Earl Spencer, who allowed the founders to drain and enclose a portion of Wandsworth Common. It has been based at Fieldview on the nearby Earlsfield site since 1903. The Ironsides were formed as a rugby club in 1943 by members of the Royal Tank Regiment.

David Gardiner-Hill, director of the Battersea Ironsides Sports Club, said: "We can now look forward to moving on knowing that we have a much more secure financial base."