Swindon
College Old
Boys RUFC
swindon college
old boys
S
windon College Old Boys RFC (SCOB) is based at the
Nationwide Sports Pavilion on Pipers Way in Wiltshire and
their first team currently competes in the South West Division
of the Southern Counties North League. Chairman Darren
Astley took the time to tell us more about the work that has
been going on at the club lately.
He told us, “SCOB are a very unique club in that we do not have our own
facilities and has always had a nomadic past. We move our ‘clubhouse’
every few years to a different pub in the town and at the time when I joined
used to hire pitches from the local council. To help concrete the new found
partnership with Nationwide we offered them the use of the facilities for
all home games as a base and this has been a successful collaboration for
almost 20 years with the pitch and facilities being some of the best in the
region.
“As with all aspects in life things never stay the same and SCOB have
finally decided to lay down some proper roots so we are currently in
negotiation to finally get our own ground and facilities.
“Over the next 3 years we will go through the biggest change the club
has ever gone through and with the prospect of finally having a youth set
up the rewards will be there for all to see and we will look to push on to
greater things.
“Last season we got promoted back up to Southern Counties North,
won the Dorset & Wilts Senior Vase, won the Southern Counties Cup and
reached the quarter finals of the National Cup - going through the entire
season only losing 3 games. Our 2nd team, lucky not to get relegated the
previous season, managed to finish 6th in the Dorset & Wilts II League
with record numbers playing so there is a real buzz around the club at the
moment.
“We have recently started pre-season training and already numbers are
good and everyone is pushing themselves harder knowing that they have
to work hard to keep their positions. In last year’s cup run we used over
75% of the players so everyone knows that their place is not guaranteed.
“We have over the past year managed to secure a number of big
sponsorship deals with a number of local businesses - Pebley Beach garage,
SMILE dental care, Hillier’s Funeral Services, Back2Fitness and of course
our new home ‘20 at the Kings’ Hotel to name a few as well keeping our
older sponsors so again it helps concrete the feeling that we are on the
precipice of something big in the club and the next few years will be very
exciting.
“There were a number of factors in our success last season. We had a
shakeup with the hierarchy and I was brought in as Chairman - bringing
in 2 older retired players - Martin Lloyd and Mark Lea - into the coaching
staff.
“We managed to obtain a number of new players again, some previously
playing at a lot higher standard which helped improve the standard. Also
retaining Kate Cady (Back2fitness) and her team as physios was a major
factor helping players with injuries get back up and running sooner.
“There was also a feeling of work unfinished from the previous season
with a lot of the players. Unfortunately we were relegated from Southern
Counties North and many of the players felt we did not do ourselves justice
picking up a number of significant injuries early on and not playing the
way we felt we could so a lot of frustration was taken out on a number of
teams last season.
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