Settling the scoreboard with Dorchester RFC

Project Profile

Dorchester Rugby Club is a grassroots sports organisation based in Dorset. The club has a position right at the heart of its local community, having recently celebrated the 150th year since its formation.

Bob Andrews, the club’s maintenance manager, explains: “This club was formed in 1871, the same year as the Rugby Football Union was formed. We’ve recently celebrated our 150th anniversary. We have two senior sides and a big junior section.

“The first team were fortunate enough to be promoted, so we’re in the next league up for next season. We always have very good support here. We’re a community club, we have the support of a lot of local businesses and it’s a lot of fun down here.”

The Challenge

The club previously made the switch to new LED floodlights, which are more efficient to run and better for the environment than older models. Lighting like this is essential for sports clubs as it allows matches and training sessions to take place on the pitch after dark.

This work was done with the club believing that the lights would be able to be operated independently of the pre-existing electronic scoreboard. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case – as the scoreboard and the floodlights were wired using the same circuit.

“So, when we want to put the scoreboard on, even if it’s brilliant sunshine, we have to have the floodlights on,” says Bob. “This is obviously inefficient.”

The Solution

The only way around this was to somehow run a separate electric cable from the clubhouse on one side of the pitch to the scoreboard on the other. This is something which would normally incur a significant financial cost to the club, as well as require a great deal of labour and potentially create lots of mess. That’s when Wessex Internet stepped in to help, thanks to an encounter with former Dorchester first team captain Martin Bartlett.

Bob recalls: “Wessex Internet were doing some work at his farm, laying some cable, so he asked if they could help. Very graciously, Wessex Internet said yes. So today, thankfully, we’re very happy that Wessex Internet are going to assist us in ploughing across the pitch.”

A four-person Wessex Internet special projects team, led by foreman and Dorchester schoolboy Tom Balchin, began their mission by undertaking a comprehensive survey of the pitch itself to identify any services which run underneath it.

“There are a lot of unmapped electric cables which feed all the lights around the edge,” Tom says. “There are also other services like water and sewage to contend with as well.”

Once these obstacles were all identified, Tom and his team could then begin to plan the route that the cable would take. He continues: “We’ve got to take the cable from the clubhouse down alongside the edge of the pitch. Then we’ve got to take it across the middle of the pitch to the other side, and then we’ve got to take it back up to meet the scoreboard.”

Assisted by an excavator, as well as some old-school shovel work, the key piece of machinery used on the job was a remote-controlled midi mole plough. Usually deployed to plough fibre optic cables beneath the countryside, this specialist equipment lent itself particularly well to this project.

Any rugby club’s prized asset is its pitch, and so the single cut left by the mole plough is far preferable to digging up the grass in the traditional way. Following a bit of post-plough hammering-down with a digger bucket, it quickly became difficult to see where the plough had been. The new rugby season won’t start until August, by which time the pitch will long have healed completely.

The Results

The club needs to use its scoreboard regularly at times when its floodlights are not required. Being able to operate the two systems independently of each other will have a huge positive impact on the club’s finances.

“It’s a massive benefit,” Bob confirms. “We’re always looking to save money as it costs a lot of money to run the club. We’re having 35 solar panels installed on the roof of the clubhouse, which will also help reduce our costs.

“Our electric costs are massive, and so anything we can do to minimise that, and also save the planet at the same time, is a good thing. We’re very grateful to Wessex Internet and it’s a wonderful community project.”

Local Knowledge Is Power

The Dorchester Rugby Club story highlights how Wessex Internet can make a positive impact in local communities even when there’s no internet provision involved. It also shows how local knowledge and passion flows freely within its teams.

“It’s lovely to be able to come back here to Dorchester where I went to school, next door at Thomas Hardye,” reflects Tom, the project foreman. “And what a lovely setting to work in with lads who all want to do a good job.”

Bob concludes: “Thanks to Wessex Internet – it would cost us a lot of money to do this and we’re very grateful for their expertise.”