Old Patesian's Ladies Rugby
About Us
The Old Pats were formed in 1913. Membership was restricted to former pupils of Cheltenham Grammar School. During the 20s and 30s matches were played over a radius of some 40 miles from the town. Following the 2nd World War the rugby club was the basis upon which the Old Patesians Association was founded in 1947. Premises for a clubhouse was purchased and other sports were adopted and the club became open to members other than ex-Pates pupils. That premises was sold and in the 60s the present club house was erected.
Old Patesians RFC started league life in Gloucestershire One and won promotion in the 1991/92 season and repeated this in the two subsequent seasons. Winning South West Two in 1997/98 promoted us to South West 1 and eventually went ahead to gain promotion to National 3 South. In recent years there has been regular veteran and junior rugby at the club with the junior section proving to be a huge success.
In 2005 the Club hosted a women’s rugby match between Plymouth and Cardiff (The Old Pats being about half way between the two teams and thus saved on travelling for both teams). Following that match and the publicity of it the Chairman of the rugby section was approach by two individuals who asked if the Old Pats were interested in starting up a ladies section. Debbie Green who was already involved with the rugby committee agreed to meet up with Zoë Berry and Gemma Wheeler who were to two who individuals in question in December 2005. Posters were put up in strategic place (supermarket notice boards and ladies toilets in pubs and clubs) and in January 2006 the Old Patesian Ladies RFC was formed.
Most of the girls that joined us then are still with us. Very few had ever played rugby before so we all had a huge learning curve to overcome but thanks to our dedicated coaching team headed by John Smith with help from Russ Nunn, James Stickland and Ollie Smith we have gone from strength to strength.
During the 2006/2007 we have been playing friendly matches against local opposition (Berry Hill, Dursley, Tewkesbury, Hucclecote and Clevedon) in order to gain experience to enable us to join a league for the 2007/2008 season. Our first anniversary in January 2006 coincided with the 1st IV men playing against Canterbury so we invited the Canterbury ladies down and had a friendly match against them followed by a social evening.
If you are looking to get fit, meet new people, learn something new, then come along. We are a very friendly bunch so whatever your age, size or capability give it a go.
