Brockworth Rugby Club are celebrating their 50^th anniversary this year.

And it promises to be a special 12 months for the Counties 3 Gloucestershire North club, who have made a considerable impact in the county and beyond over the past half-century.

They’ve produced players who have gone on to play for Gloucester, they’ve won a couple of league titles, and over the years they’ve had a lot of fun, both on and off the pitch.

Current chairman Dave Alden has been at the club right from the start.

The 65-year-old, who is Brockworth born and bred, was part of the junior section 50 years ago and he said: “I was playing for the under-15s and then the Colts. They were run by Ted Priest who was chairman of the senior club for the first 11 years, he was a major force.

“His two sons Mike and Steve were playing at Painswick and rather than driving them over there, he decided to set up the juniors at Brockworth.”

Mike, a loosehead prop, was a particularly good player and went on to play a few games for Gloucester United.

Steve was an openside and former Brockworth School pupil Alden recalled: “I played a bit with both of them. In those days I was a second row, I was quite tall, but I went on to become a centre.

“I was mainly a 2^nd XV player, but I did play a few games for the first team.

“I was playing for the seniors almost from the start. I remember turning up on my push bike to watch a game and Mike [Priest] said, ‘Do you fancy a game?’.

“It was my first game for the seniors, it was against Tredworth 3rds and I played number 8. We just beat them.”

Alden, who is in his sixth year as chairman, has very fond memories of those early days.

“We did a deal with a local farmer John Morgan to buy some land and by January 1979 we had built our own clubhouse,” continued Alden.

“We were running three teams by then. We used to get a lot of players from the nearby engineering company Lucas Bryce.

“In our heyday we were running four adult teams as well as 15s, 17s and Colts teams.

“They were amazing times. Everything was so new, Saturdays were just rugby, rugby, rugby. Everybody wanted to train, everybody wanted to play in the first team.”

And the introduction of league rugby in the mid-to-late 1980s did little to halt their momentum because they won the Gloucester 2 title in 1988/89.

“We had some good players back then – Dave Pointon, Mark Burford, Crayton Phillips,” recalled Alden.

And the club have certainly produced some very good players for Gloucester over the years, including full-back Tim Smith, hooker John Hawker and centre Jack Adams who also played for Bristol.

Brockworth’s most recent title success came in 2019/20 in Gloucestershire 2 North when they won 13 out of 13 before the season was cut short by Covid.

There was no league rugby the following season and Brockworth, in common with a lot of clubs, are still feeling the impact of that enforced break.

“With our catchment area, we should be playing in the division above,” said Alden, whose son Mitchell played in the centre for the 1^st XV for a good number of years.

“There are a lot of chimney pots but we are only running one senior side at the moment.”

They’d like to run at least two and there is hope on the horizon.

“Our minis and juniors section is thriving,” Alden said. “We have 200-plus youngsters every Sunday and we’re running teams from under-6s to under-15s.

“The juniors are run by Dave Mackay and Craig Brindley, who is also our club president. They do a cracking job.

“Our under-15s are a very good side and we’ve just got to wait a few more years until they are ready to play adult rugby.”

And when they do they will be welcomed with open arms by joint coaches Aaron Prictor and Scott Reeves.

“They are both Brockworth diehards,” said  Alden. “They both won the under-15 County Cup with the club and they work very well with our director of rugby Rob Harding who is a great bloke.”

George Gladding has also joined the club as player/coach, so there is no shortage of ambition at the club.

“We’ve got a really pro-active committee and financially we’re sound,” continued Alden. “We’ve had some difficult times over the years but to reach our 50^th is a big achievement.”

And they are certainly planning to mark that achievement.

“I remember our 25^th, it feels like yesterday,” said Alden. “We celebrated by going on tour to Prague, that was a big thing. There were 63 of us and we went down to Heathrow on a double-decker bus!

“We will definitely be going on an overseas tour this year.

“We’ll also have a celebration dinner and there will be a celebration match against the Eggchasers.”