Officials at Cotham Park are still looking on the bright side despite their Abbots Leigh clubhouse suffering serious fire damage last week.

A branch fell in stormy weather and brought down an overhead power cable. That in turn is thought to have fallen on a propane gas cylinder and started a blaze in the boiler room which, along with a store room, was gutted.

Changing rooms need to be completely refurbished because of heavy smoke damage, while the main clubhouse area has also been badly affected.

Secretary Chris Meechan said: "It's business but not as usual... people are rallying around and we're trying to get back on line as soon as possible.

"We've seen some of the Dunkirk spirit up here.

"Luckily, the flags and the post protectors had been left out from the previous week so our Under-13s were still able to play Avonmouth on Sunday, although there was obviously no access at all to the clubhouse."

The first priority for the club is to restore an electricity supply so professional cleaners can be brought in to begin the long task of ridding facilities of a thick layer of oily dust.

Meechan hopes that upstairs areas in the clubhouse will be reopened in around another week or so but thinks it will be two or three weeks before other facilities will be ready.

Fixture secretary Nick Mortell added: "We have a bit of breathing space as our next home league game is on December 5.

"We're seeing if we can swap that around and play away instead, while we're hoping we might be up and running for a second-team match on December 12.

"We're very grateful to Dings, who offered us their facilities for training this week. It was something we really appreciated."

Southmead are launching a drive to raise the £50,000 needed to polish off the second phase of their dressing-rooms project after celebrating the successful completion of phase one with a series of events last Sunday.

Former Green Cross Code actor Dave Prowse, who was born around the corner from the Greenway Centre, lent his considerable presence to the day.

And the man also famous for his role as Darth Vader in the blockbusting Star Wars series has donated a light sabre movie prop to the delighted club.

Southmead operations director Jason Silcox said: "What a lovely guy... Dave was just fantastic, staying all day and signing countless autographs.

"We'll now start banging the drum to raise the next £50,000 to fit out two more changing rooms by begging and borrowing as usual."

More than 150 players took part in a junior tournament, while a Peeler invitation team, featuring the likes of Dave Sims, Dave Hilton, John Carr, Mark Gabey, Craig Short and Stean Williams, romped to victory over Southmead, with Chris Horsman refereeing.

Prowse, incidentally, was accompanied by his brother Bob, a former Old Elizabethan who made two appearances for Bristol as a winger/outside centre in the 1957-58 season under the captaincy of John Blake.