UK Armed Forces to storm Doncaster's Castle Park for rugby match in aid of charity
David Bathgate spent 34 years serving on a submarine in the Royal Navy but his biggest battle might come on a rugby pitch.
For the Yorkshireman, a proud servant of his country, has dedicated much of the latter years of his professional life to fighting cancer, a disease that has swept through his family to devastating effect.
So frequent came the tragedies that befell those closest to him that he sought solace in his wider family - the military.
And together with two like-minded servicemen, he formed a charity to fight back and give back, one that next month stages its fourth showpiece rugby match between teams representing the combined UK Armed Forces and the best players in semi-professional teams in the north of England in his hometown of Doncaster.
On Saturday, July 4, players from English rugby’s second tier down to the fourth will represent the North of England against UK Armed Forces select at Castle Park.
It is the fourth annual meeting between the two opposing forces, but this time it is no one-off, for the Armed Forces’s women’s team also play the North East, while the military select’s Under-20s square off against their England Counties counterparts in the curtain-raiser at midday.
It is all to raise money for the nationwide charity, Military v Cancer, which is based in Doncaster.
For Bathgate, chairman of Military v Cancer, organising this triple header is a battle he tackles headlong.
“Going back to 2018 I started losing a large amount of my family,” he begins of the origins of the charity and the rugby match.
“I lost six in a two-year period, eight in total and there’s another two still fighting cancer. So it’s a big one for me. But that wasn’t really the kickstart, it was one of the lads on my submarine at the time, got diagnosed with cancer.
“He said: ‘I’m going to be gone in six months time, I’m going to leave my wife and daughter with nothing’.
“So we all got together as a crew and held a ball to raise some money for him. It was at that event that three of us got talking and realised we could actually do something here. We raised £92,000 for two well-known military cancer charities. Covid pretty much wiped us out, but four years ago we set up as a registered charity for serving personnel.”
Rugby is a serious matter in the armed forces, as are sports that foster teamwork and camaraderie.
Each year, all three branches of the military play each other in a round-robin tournament. The best players are then picked to represent the UK Armed Forces.
Aidan Duffy, a former PE teacher now a training officer stationed at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, is the team manager.
“Rugby is massive for the armed forces,” he said. “There’s a lot of correlation between what happens on and off the rugby pitch, in a work environment but also how we get on from a tri-service point of view.
“UKAF gives us a great opportunity for us to come together and work together. Generally the rivalry is always going to be there but it’s parked at the door.
“Next year we’ve got the International Defence Rugby Competition World Cup out in Australia and we’re building for that now, it’ll be the end of our four-year cycle.
“We normally try and get together a minimum of two, three times a year, but now we’re in the build up to the IDRC we’ve got five or six camps between now and September when we fly to Australia.
“This game in Doncaster is a really important opportunity to build and gel the team together as we build towards that.
“And the will to win against the North of England is massive, it’s the pinnacle of service rugby. You’re representing your service, your badge, your trade, your profession, your ship.
"But it’s important not to forget this is Military v Cancer so it’s about raising awareness as well.”
As a man of the Navy, Bathgate understands loyalty to unit and the rivalries that engenders within the military community.
But when the chips are down, when they need to unite, he takes enormous pride in seeing the UK Armed Forces come together.
“They confound expectations when they play rugby together,” he said. “When it comes to raising money for a military, or just supporting the people around them, that’s when they come to the fore.
“This charity is incredibly close to my heart.
"By running Military v Cancer, I know what it is to fight back. All those things combined make this a very special occasion.”
Ticket info for a ‘great cause’
Played up at Newcastle’s Kingston Park last season, the Military v Cancer charity rugby match raised £16,000.
This year, with three games on one day at Doncaster Knights’ Castle Park on Saturday, July 4, they want double that.
Charity chair David Bathgate said: “We’re hoping to raise around £30,000 to £35,000 this year and hoping for a much bigger crowd.
“Not just the big crowd obut also the goodwill of the Yorkshire people for sponsorship to get this off the ground.
“We want people in the stands because we want to keep coming back each year.”
For tickets - £5 for Doncaster season ticket holders, military veterans and concessions; £10 general - visit https://www.drfc.co.uk/match-day-tickets/