100 years of Sandal RUFC
Sandal Rugby Club is coming up to its centenary year. Founded in 1927, the club will be retracing the steps of their forebears, commemorating their legacy. Sandal RUFC has recently undertaken major renovations, including refurbishing their function rooms, improving their hot water system and building an outdoor coffee shop. Upcoming projects involving pitch irrigation and padel court construction will benefit the club long in to its next 100 years.
It’s a credit to the dedicated members of the club, including their leadership team and committee, that the club is still standing after the pandemic. Following multiple fundraising efforts Sandal Rugby Club’s popularity has soared; the car park is busy with visitors in the mornings, grabbing coffee or going to an association meeting, through to the evenings, with matches and training.
I arranged to meet Tim Scatchard, Sandal’s Club Chairman and President. Tim, an ex-carpet manufacturing business owner, has been in the post of chairman for 10 years, and also the appointed president for 4 seasons. He has been involved with the club all his life, having been a junior at the club aged 16 – but it was only during COVID when he exited his business and entered retirement, that Tim stepped into the larger role.
We arrive the day after World Cup final day. Tim notes there was incredible demand for watching the England football games, and Sandal Rugby Club showed many of the home nation matches in the clubhouse. This sets the tone for the rest of our conversation, where I try to grasp the unbelievable resourcefulness of the club’s leadership team – always seeking out financial opportunities and ensuring the club is best placed as Sandal’s central hub.
Introduction to Sandal Rugby Club, with Tim Scratchard
“Many view Sandal as a village,” says Tim, “at least those familiar with the geography of Wakefield. And most children from this area, at some stage in their life, will pass through Sandal Rugby Club one way or another.”
“Rugby, of course, has a huge catchment area. We run 19 teams – including boy’s under 6s to under 18s, as well as girl’s teams from under 12s to under 18s.” This leads me to ask Tim about the year’s key challenge many clubs have faced, which is the maintenance of the pitches. “With so many teams, the pitches can take a battering. The grass has struggled this year with the weather. We’ve been focusing on the first-team pitch; the end of season treatment cost over £6,000 – that’s for vertidraining, top dressing and reseeding.
“We’ve tried to improve how we harvest water for the pitches. The only viable solution with the weather getting hotter and hotter is boreholes, but the financial commitment is absolutely massive. £30,000 minimum. We have had a borehole installed this year, but we are now looking at how to get the water out of the borehole, and how to fund the financial cost of it all.”
“A single pitch takes about 20 to 25 cubic meters of water. And in sunny spells, the pitch may need double. But with more water, it demands more cutting; it’s a never ending challenge.”
Sandal RUFC has a comprehensive list of projects ongoing at the club. Yet it’s Tim’s job, alongside the Treasurer, to work out how to fund all these improvements. The team is always on the lookout for grants and schemes which may help the club’s finances.
“The committee are certainly not short of ideas,” says Tim, “such as a gate for the front of the premises, but how do we pay for this? We fundraise and do community work but we also have great sponsors.” Tim was keen for me to mention that at Sandal RUFC there is plenty of room for more sponsors!
“We have developed the property by starting The Sheds Coffee Bar this year. People have always said the club needs a better outdoor dining setup, so we created a catering shed fully equipped with kitchen facilities. The original intention for the shed, as an extension of our catering facilities, hasn’t materialised – but a member wanted to take it over as a coffee bar. It’s only four weeks old and we are still negotiating share of profits but it’s doing very well.”
“The quality of Sandal RUFC is that it transforms from a rugby club to a social club. We have a lot of funerals, not just because of the deep connection our members have to the club, but also because the crematorium is just up the road. We’ve invested heavily in refurbishments, making it more akin to a social club and improving our three function rooms. Meetings, presentations, 60th birthday parties; our function rooms are available to anyone who wants to hire them.”
Tim then started to list the wonderful range of schemes the club has been used for over the years. “On polling day the club becomes a polling station. We also host PACT meetings, which are for the police to reach out to the community.”
“Sandal RUFC now hosts the driving awareness course. That came about because my wife got caught speeding and needed somewhere to go, which was when we realised there was nowhere local. My wife got caught twice in one journey on an average speed check, and after having made inquiries, I arranged for them to host the in-person training at our club.”
“Also, the clubhouse was used by the NHS for COVID vaccines very early on. They’ve been here from the start of the vaccine programme all the way up until December 2025. At the beginning, they had no idea what they were doing, and the club was jammed full of equipment. But after a while, they laid out strict waiting areas, entrances and exits; they paid us for every weekday and weekend for the business interruption as we couldn’t use our function rooms. We’ve had over 400,000 vaccines take place at our premises in six years. Investment-wise, I would say we were adequately compensated for our potential loss of earnings during the period.”
Padel at Sandal Rugby Club
I then moved the conversation toward padel. Padel is the fastest growing sport in the UK, and padel courts have been appearing up and down the country – however trying to book a half-decent time slot is still impossible. Many clubs have investigated the financial upsides of building a padel court, whether that’s independently or by leasing land to a padel business. Tim Scatchard walks us through the decision making process behind building a padel court at Sandal, and the finances of the project.
“It was a member of the club who came to us with the idea of building a padel court,” says Tim. “The member owned a construction business with his brothers and offered to build the courts at his own expense. The family have long been associated with the club, they are trusted members. Of the three brothers, one’s a joiner, one’s a plumber and one’s a bricklayer – which sounds like the start of a bad joke.” We chuckle. “Their family will then run the padel bookings, but of course it will be on our land and use our car park and facilities.”
I ask if they will be leasing them the land, akin to how many sports clubs and golf clubs operate their padel courts, but Tim said no. “It’s going to be a profit share agreement. We’ll take a percentage of their earnings. That way, if he does well, we do well – but the main benefit is that it will attract people to the clubhouse. Let’s hope these padel players drink beer.”
“In total, they estimated 10 weeks it would take for them to get the courts up and running. That’s building the platform, laying the cement, building the courts and putting up the walls. The brothers are doing everything themselves, and weather-permitting, we’ll be up and running in a couple of weeks.”
Fundraising at Sandal Rugby Club
Over the years, Sandal RUFC have crowdfunded in a number of different ways, particularly coming out of the pandemic when the club’s funds were depleted. Tim Scatchard laughs as he recounts the different fundraising events over the years.
“Much of the crowdfunding was initiated by the players. Some did a one minute or two minute video of doing something stupid. Trying to do 100 press ups or maybe drink two pints in the time, and then they’d put it up on our fundraising page.”
“Then the idea for a sponsored bike ride came about – the boys wanted to do a one hundred mile challenge.” said Tim. The charity cycle ride in 2020 involved players, former players, fans and supporters. The fundraising effort raised over £17,000 for the club. Tim continued, “They set off from Sandal, went to Selby, then to Pocklington Rugby Club. At the time, the money made a big difference, and we were able to ringfence that – allowing us to finish a renovation and open fully after the pandemic.”
In 2026, the extent of renovations has turned Sandal RUFC into a whole new club. Tim talked to me about the multiple renovation and improvements Sandal have financed, and how investment in the club will benefit in the long term.
“A lot of the infrastructure of the building is over 20 years old,” says Tim, “so once we paid off our overdrafts we could look at renovating. We put £40,000 into improving the hot water system last year. That has stopped the endless emails and complaints about cold showers I’d get, but since that’s been done I’ve only had one email saying it’s great to have a hot shower!”
“Other projects that will benefit in the long term include green energy and solar panels. The only issue is battery storage and the risks involved. We have applied for grants but so far we have been unsuccessful. Of course the padel courts are a big project, alongside the irrigation. We are trying to become as financially self-sufficient as possible.”
Sandal RUFC is happily insured by Club Insure
After our conversation, as we were enjoying the sunshine and taking a tour of the new facilities, Tim Scatchard gave me his very honest opinion about Sandal’s insurance broker Club Insure, and his appointed account handler, Anthony Dixon:
“Sandal has been insured with Club Insure for over ten years. Anthony (Dixon) has family associated with the club and I can tell is a huge advocate for the rugby community. Although I do not personally know Anthony, I would say he is friendly and if we ever did cross paths outside of his visitations I’d happily say hello and have a catch up. I know he’s lost a lot of weight recently, looks fantastic and has kicked the drink! That means our chats on his visitations are a little more boring, but good luck to him. He’s the kind of person who doesn’t beat around the bush, and tells it to me straight, which is exactly what I need as Club Chairman. Club Insure have been supportive throughout our renovation work, and so I would recommend Club Insure to other rugby clubs.”
Thank you to Tim Scatchard for his time, Sandal RUFC is certainly on the up, and we can’t wait to see the success to come from your new padel project!
If you have a club or club member you believe deserves recognition, please contact us today, sending a brief message to Club Insure about why your club champion should be recognised.