DEVIZES have hailed former Saddleback Keith Butler after he invested in the club’s youth section with a five-year sponsorship deal.

The 36-year-old former front row came through the Devizes youth system to play for the club’s first team and the young Saddelbacks are now backed by his power optimisation company Critical Power Protection.

Butler is keen for his investment to help the youth section flourish and said: “I’m Devizes born and bred and it’s great to be able to give something back to the club because I’ve always been involved with them.

“I hope they make the best use of it to develop the youth section and the coaching too.

“Kids always seem to get a bad press but you want to get yourself down to Devizes on a Sunday morning and see the 200-odd youngsters enjoying the game – it’s great to be a part of that.”

Butler, who stopped playing five years ago, also re-joined Devizes as lead coach for the U11 side this season.

Youth section chairman Jon Baldwin said: “It’s more than we could ever hope for and he’s helped us so much.

“We’ve already bought a set of gazebos for the youngsters to stand under at games when it’s wet and windy and we’ll be looking to get new strips for all of the youth sides to play in.

“We want to provide a great environment for rugby and this will really help us do that.”