The key to the RBS programme, which has delivered support to over 200 clubs in England, Scotland and Wales, is the involvement of volunteers who are willing to role up their sleeves and put the RBS RugbyForce funding to good use. And Keighley was in no short supply of those last weekend.

“I was very impressed with the Keighley set-up and the way their volunteers and members got stuck into a long list of jobs,” said Jason Leonard, who lent his support to the RBS RugbyForce programme and was one of the panel of judges that chose Keighley as the England winner.

“Projects like this can really energise a club if they embrace them with real enthusiasm and that was certainly the case at Keighley. They were very well organised in terms of how they approached the various tasks and how they used their resources. There were lots of bodies, which is the key to really getting something done, but they also had plenty of equipment to make the most of that manpower.

“It’s great to see the spirit within any club shining through as it did at Keighley and they fully justified their award.”

“We were obviously thrilled and delighted to be chosen for one of the major awards because we had a number of important projects that we wanted to get on with,” says Chairman Dr David Mortimer: “Some of them were priorities on the grounds of safety – improving ambulance access to two of our pitches was a case in point – while others involved the general upkeep needed to keep the place looking smart and attractive for our members and people from the community who use our facilities for weddings and social functions.

“We have one of the prettiest locations of any club in the country and while we are very close to a town that was built on the famous ‘dark, satanic mills’, there is no trace of that landscape in our corner of the picturesque Aire Valley.

“I’m also delighted that the award has not only helped us to get a lot of work done, but it has also been one of those projects that every club undertakes from time to time that really bonds the membership together, which I know was very important in the thinking of RBS when they conceived the RugbyForce programme.

“We’ve had a great couple of days with over 70 members, players and supporters working away. We took time out to see England win on Saturday, which put a real spring in our step, and we wrapped up the weekend with a Fathers’ Day barbecue, by which time we’d worked up a decent thirst.

“Obviously the support we had from Jason Leonard, Hendre Fourie and Neil Back was marvellous for the youngsters – and their parents! – and I’m just delighted everything came together so well, even the weather.

“It says something for the RBS RugbyForce initiative that people who turned up to start working at 8.30am were talking later in the day about how we should make these working weekends an annual feature. It’s just great to see that spirit, which I’m sure exists in every club, coming to the fore.”

Keighley, Pontycymmer and Marr were three of 401 clubs who registered for RBS RugbyForce 2010 across England, Scotland and Wales, each submitting a proposal for club project work.

Bruce Cook, RBS Sponsorship Programme Manager, said of the 2010 programme: “Clubs worked hard on preparing some high-quality submissions and choosing the winning trio was a real challenge, but the three winning clubs have really done a great job.

“The concept of the programme was to get volunteers from the clubs and their communities to become involved in improvement projects and at the same time generate a sense of spirit and belonging. I hope that everyone involved in RBS RugbyForce and their clubs will have taken a great deal out of the experience.”