London Irish Rugby Club has had a good response to its funding operation. So far it has raised £2,420,000 sterling (£2,656,421), well ahead of the minimum £2 million target it had set.

A board meeting scheduled for next Saturday will decide when to close the fund, according to businessman Mr Geoff Read. He heads a consortium of Irish businessmen who gave commitments for £1 million. Those commitments were conditional on a further £1 million being raised.

Mr Read said the raising of funds had been "an interesting exercise" and he was "very encouraged by the support". The funds would be used to strengthen the squad and improve the facilities. "We need a few more players." Mr Read, former chairman of Ballygowan Spring Water, stressed that there was still "an awful lot to do", but that he was taking a "long-term view".

The 1,400 members and the public were asked to subscribe for up to 15 million new ordinary shares at 10p each in London Irish Holdings, a holding company. The proceeds, according to the prospectus, were to enable the holding company to acquire all the assets and liabilities of the club's companies, including the grounds at Sunbury.

The freehold grounds at Sunbury (near Twickenham) consists of 11 acres. Last year, it entered into an option agreement to buy an adjacent seven acres.

Around 350 people have agreed to subscribe for the new shares, ranging from £100 (the minimum) to £200,000. Between 15 and 20 people subscribed for 75 per cent of the issue.

Mr Read, a director of the rugby company, will have a beneficial interest in a trust which will take up one million shares, (at a cost of £100,000) representing 4 per cent of the enlarged equity. Mr Read said he had not decided if he would buy additional shares.

Other directors who are committed to take up shares are Mr Maurice O'Connell (one million shares), Mr John O'Neill, a former executive chairman of Silvermines (500,000), and Mr John Stacpoole and family (two million).

London Irish, which gets most of its revenue from television rights, incurred a loss of £442,000 in the year to May 3rd, 1997.