A Brief History of Sandal RUFC
In June 1927 a former Wakefield RFC member, Mr Claude Beaumont, took up residence in Sandal and sought to found Sandal RUFC by arranging to meet local sportsmen in the Castle Inn to consider his proposal. This they did on 26th August 1927 and Sandal RUFC was born. They purchased their ground in 1931. In 1932/33 Sandal won the Yorkshire Shield beating Scarborough at Bridlington by 13-6. 1933/34 saw Sandal reaching the final of the Yorkshire Cup, accounting for Old Bradfordians, Baildon, Batley and Bradford, on the way to the final against Otley at Lidget Green, Bradford, when they lost 13-3. The Sandal wing threequarters for this game were Jack Holdsworth, later to become President of the Club in 1960 and Prince Alex Oblensky, the Oxford University and England International, who had just returned from a tour of Argentina with the British team. Unfortunately on 29th March 1940, aged 24, he was the first rugby international to be killed in the Second World War, losing his life in a bizarre training accident in his Hawker Hurricane, just outside Ipswich. In spite of having Oblensky in the Sandal XV the hosts lost nil-3.

At the end of the 1959/1960 season the Sandal 1st XV won through to the Yorkshire Cup final for the third time, only to be defeated this time by Old Crossleyans at Scatchard Lane, Morley by 9-3. In an attempt to attract better fixtures before the introduction of leagues, floodlights were erected and officially switched on by Don F. Stables on 23rd October 1985, prior to a game played against Harrogate RUFC to commemorate the occasion. Harrogate won 13 – 12. The eighties saw success throughout and with the introduction of leagues in 1987/88 Sandal RUFC was placed in Division 2 North alongside such clubs as Wilmslow, Halifax, Huddersfield, Lymm, Manchester and New Brighton. Sandal’s first league game was away to Wilmslow RUFC which saw the visitors leave with a win by 21-6. The side remained in Division 2 North for four years before securing promotion to Division 1 North at the end of the 1990/91 season.

Other milestones during this period saw two defeats in finals of the Yorkshire Cup Competition, against Wakefield in 1993/94 and then against Doncaster in 1998/99. But a victory in the same competition had been secured against Doncaster two years earlier in 1996/97. With professional rugby taking its toll on Club finances the managing Committee took the momentous decision, just after the millennium, to revert the Club back to having a totally amateur status. Whilst this was the correct decision it
meant that players were lost with the result that between 2002 and 2006 the Club was relegated three times from National 3 North, through North One and North 2 East to start season 2006/07 in Yorkshire One. The slide had to be addressed and to this end the Club appointed former Wakefield and Rotherham coach, Jim Kilfoyle, to take charge of rugby coaching at Sandal and with his involvement an improved playing record soon evolved.

Sandal were promoted twice between 2006 and 2010, from Yorkshire One to National 3 North for the start of the 2010/11 season, where the side remained for five seasons until gaining a further promotion to National 2 North for the 2015/16 season.

The latest and most recent success the Sandal Club has enjoyed was the winning of the Yorkshire Cup for the third time on 17th April 2019 with victory against Sheffield by 32-14 at Morley RFC. Sandal are currently 9th in the Regional 1 North East League. They lost 15 – 23 to Doncaster Phoenix, 31 – 36 to Driffield, 20 – 21 to Heath and won 25 – 19 against Ilkley. Harrogate top the league having defeated Driffield 20 – 10, drawn 16 – 16 with Heath, defeated Ilkley 27 – 17 and defeated Alnwick 44 – 6.