William "Bill" Sandham (10 March 1879 – unknown) was a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

and professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1900s and 1910s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for

Neath RFC Neath Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Castell-Nedd) is a Welsh rugby union club which plays in the WRU Championship. The club's home ground is The Gnoll, Neath. The team is known as the All Blacks because of the team colours: black with onl ...

, and representative level rugby league (RL) for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, and at club level for

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

, as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

(prior to the specialist positions of; ), during the era of contested

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Playing career

International honours

Bill Sandham played as a

, i.e. number 9, for Wales while at Hull Kingston Rovers in the 5-31 defeat by England at The

Watersheddings Watersheddings was the site of a former rugby league stadium in the Watersheddings area of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. Historically it was in Lancashire, lying on the A672 (Ripponden Road) approximately 2 miles north east of Oldham ...

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

on Saturday 20 January 1912.

Club career

Bill Sandham was

' second highest

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-scorer in the 1910–11 and 1911–12 seasons, and set Hull Kingston Rovers' "most tries in a season by a forward" record with 25-tries scored in the 1912–13 season, this record was extended to 26-tries by

Phil Lowe Phil Lowe (born 19 January 1950) is an English World Cup winning former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1980s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, England, and ...

in the 1972–73 season. Bill Sandham was considered a "Probable" for the

1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand The 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first international tour of the Great Britain national rugby league team, "The Lions". They played the second ever Ashes series against Australia, and their first as the visiti ...

, but ultimately he was not selected for the tour.

Note

Sandham's fore-initial was stated a being 'A.' on rugbyleagueproject.org.

References

External links

Northern Union → The Colonial Football Tour → Probable PlayersPhil Lowe, Hull Kingston Rovers' international second-row forward, scored his 26th try of the season … scoring beat Bill Sandham's 60 year …
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandham, William Neath RFC players Hull Kingston Rovers players Place of birth missing Place of death missing Rugby league forwards Wales national rugby league team players Welsh rugby league players Welsh rugby union players Year of birth missing Year of death missing