These are exciting times for Gloucester Athletic Club.

For the first time in 10 years they are competing in the top flight of the high-profile Midland League and Matt Holloway, their new senior track and field team manager, is confident that they have the athletes to prosper.

It’s been a meteoric rise for the club because as recently as 2017 they found themselves in Division Four.

Three successive promotions later and they were back up with the big boys but then Covid struck – the league was postponed for 2020 and localised for 2021 – so this season is the first chance in a decade for the club to test themselves at the top level.

And Holloway, who has taken over from club stalwart Richard Blackwell, is in confident mood, a confidence that is not misplaced because they won their opening fixture of the campaign.

“A lot of the athletes who helped get us back up to this level are still with the club and we also have some very talented young athletes coming through,” Holloway said.

“The team is again captained by steeplechaser Steve Millward and it’s great that we’ve been able to welcome back Gareth Winter who has joined a very strong group of throwers competing for us.

“Some of the young athletes making their proper league debuts include 400m and 800m runner Ethan Hood, decathlete Josh Robinson, sprinter Ella-Grace Edwards and hammer thrower Chrissy Campion. All of them are very talented and have bright futures ahead of them.

“Like all of the Gloucester team they are prepared to fill in events where necessary and this ethos is shown with senior athlete Kate Davies and veteran 40 athlete Jacqui Holloway who regularly compete in six or seven events in a day.

“The team will continue to get stronger as the season goes on as we were hampered by injuries and absences through exams for the first meeting.

“I genuinely believe we can do well and as ever surprise a few teams. I’m excited to see what the season holds.

“The athletes we have are always so friendly and positive, and you see this in the relays at the end of a long tiring day when they will fill in one of the spaces if needed.”

Holloway would appear to be well-suited to his new job and clearly has the organisational skills required for the role.

“I used to play a lot of Football Manager games when I was younger,” he said. “I loved the statistical side.

“It’s very similar to what I’m doing now. I took on the job in February and I’ve been drawing up lots of spreadsheets, who’s available and when, and trying to maximise the number of points we can win.”

Holloway is an interesting person to interview. Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, he and his wife, the aforementioned Jacqui Holloway, moved to Eastington, near Stonehouse, some 12 years ago, a place they still call home.

He served in the Armed forces and the Emergency services before setting up Balance Health and Fitness in 2013 with his wife, a partnership which specialises in sport and dance and which they run from a studio in Eastington.

Holloway is also a coach at Gloucester AC, a club he first got involved with back in 2015.

“I initially helped out with coaching the younger sections,” he explained, “but soon I helped to run the youth coaching and team management.

“We did well, we got to the play-offs and got a lot of people competing for the club.”

That success made him the ideal candidate to take on the senior role, of course, and he’ll be known to a lot of the team because he has competed for the club in the past.

“I’ve filled in a few gaps in the Midland League,” he said, before adding modestly, “but ‘athlete’ is a strong word for me.

“My first race for the club was, randomly, a B race veteran 100 metres and I won it, I was actually quicker than I thought!

“I’ve also run the 400 metres hurdles, I’d never done that before, and on one occasion I did six events in one day – the 100 metres, pole vault, triple jump, long jump, shot and discus.

“I actually set a club record for my age group in the triple jump, I jumped 10 metres, 20 and I broke the record by one centimetre, a record which had stood for over 20 years.

“I took the record from Ian Willoughby, who is now in his 60s and was on the measuring tape that day!”

Holloway clearly enjoys telling a good story.

“I’ve always liked athletics and I’ve always played sport,” he said. “When I was about 24 I ran the Great North Run dressed as Scooby Doo!

“I ran it with my wife and I did it to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. I finished in just under two hours which wasn’t bad because it wasn’t easy running in an all-in-one dog costume!”

Jacqui is a very decent athlete and like her husband is very much into her multi-discipline events.

Her father was a really good javelin thrower – he could throw 65 to 70 metres – and Jacqui has enjoyed success herself, winning an age group decathlon at the British Masters and finishing fifth in the World Masters, again in age group, when they were held in Malaga.

Holloway has had success too.

“I competed in the English Masters Championships in Hull and won a silver in my age group,” he said. “I raised money for TAMBA with my friend Stewart O’Reilly.”

Holloway is a big supporter of all things decathlon and heptathlon and he has worked hard to grow those events at Gloucester AC.

So what’s his favourite discipline?

“The pole vault,” he said. “I do about two metres, 70, that’s my PB. It’s a really good, fun event.”

Holloway is not planning to compete in the Midland League this season – “We’ve got enough decent athletes,” he said – but he is targeting the decathlon at the British Masters Championships in August.

“When I train properly I train well,” said the dad-of-two, “I just enjoy it.”

But while he enjoys everything that goes with athletics, first and foremost he considers himself a coach.

“It’s really rewarding,” he said. “I like to help anyone of any level or ability. I get as much pleasure out of an average athlete improving as I do out of a good one doing well.

“I’m a big fan of long-term development, I’m quite analaytical and I enjoy the sports science side of things with all the strength and conditioning.

“I like looking at the whole picture, planning the season, planning the winter, targeting one or two big competitions.”

He coaches his two children – Bethan, who is aged 11 and nine-year-old Jacob – and the two Eastington Primary School pupils are, as you’d imagine, very sporty, with Bethan ranked number one in the UK for her age group in the javelin last year.

They are obviously pretty good and it surely won’t be too many years until Dad is giving them a nudge at the dining room table and asking them to compete for Gloucester AC in the Midland League team!