RUGBY players have lost their changing rooms in a blaze estimated to have cost £20,000 of damage.

Blackheath Rugby Club's home dressing room was gutted by the fire which ripped through the Rectory Field, Charlton Road, at 5.30am, on Sunday.

It took firefighters until 7am to douse the flames which had spread to neighbouring Blackheath Day Nursery which lost one of its play rooms in the blaze.

The fire is under investigation and it is unknown whether it was caused by an electrical fault or started deliberately.

Club spokesman Jack Kay, who has been a member since 1973, said: "We are gutted this has happened.

"The first team don't have a game for the next three weeks but on the day of the fire we had to send the men to change in the Barbarians' Bar next door. It was chaos."

The 135-year-old club hopes insurance will cover the cost of the damage.