HUDDERSFIELD Rugby League Supporters' Club is facing the end of an era tonight.

It is ready to close the doors of its Fartown base at Spaines Road at the end of this month.

That is unless a last-minute rescue effort can be mounted to come up with the cash needed for its massively increased rent.

At a crunch annual meeting tonight, a final plea to save the club will be made.

But Supporters' Club president Connie Branch, 82, and trustee Roy Shaw, 72, think the end has finally come.

Once the clubhouse, built in 1965, was crammed full most nights but since Huddersfield became the Giants and moved away from the famous old Fartown ground, there has been a steady decline.

Mrs Branch, of Fartown, said: "We have had some brilliant nights here over the years but now it is looking like we are going to have to close our doors.

"We support all rugby league teams in the Huddersfield area but we have obviously been heavily connected with Fartown and then the Giants.

"When they still played up here we would not only get the supporters in but the players as well.

"We simply cannot carry on. We can't afford to stay here and as yet there is no interest from anybody else who is willing to come in and save the clubhouse."

In January, Kirklees Council slapped a £10,500 rent bill on the club after they had paid the nominal £2 a year fee for decades.

At the time a Kirklees spokesman said that lease renewals now had to be at the market value.

Both Mrs Branch and Mr Shaw, of Holmfirth, agree each of the 300 members of the supporters' club should shoulder some of the blame.

Mr Shaw, who has worked behind the bar for 32 years, said: "If no-one comes along and saves the clubhouse, we will have to call it a day. We will take all the memorabilia out and lock the doors at the end of the month."

"If people had continued coming here then we would not be in the state we are now. The sad fact is that when the team moved people did stop coming. We have tried to keep things going for a long time but we have come to a point where we can't go on any longer without some help.

"We will carry on hoping right until the end but we are not holding our breath."

The supporters' club meeting is at the clubhouse at 8pm tonight.