Tim Clink is one of those sportsmen who has an impressive CV in not just one sport, but two.

The just-turned 52-year-old was a very good rugby player back in the day – he played nearly all of his club rugby at Cheltenham – and he has made just as big an impact in the sport of golf and is currently chairman of Lilley Brook, where he has been a member for some 40 years.

He will also become president of the Gloucestershire Golf Union in 2020, so the Cheltenham businessman and married father-of-two may have his juggling skills tested if he is to keep all the proverbial balls in the air over the next couple of years or so.

Mind you, he’s had plenty of practice over the years because he had to juggle his full-on rugby and golf commitments when he was growing up, not to mention his education!

And juggling the demands of both sports was something that pretty much continued for Clink right up until he stopped playing rugby at the age of 33.

“It was always toughest in April and September when the two seasons overlapped,” said Clink, who played for the county in both sports as a junior and then in adult life.

And in many ways it got more difficult for him as he got older.

“I’d play rugby on a Saturday and then have a county golf match on the Sunday,” he recalled. “I used to hope that I didn’t get injured playing rugby on the Saturday.”

But there was another potential problem as he got older as well which he readily admits.

“I couldn’t stop going out with the boys on a Saturday night after the rugby so that didn’t help the golf either,” he laughed.

Born in Hillingdon in Middlesex, Clink moved to Cheltenham with his family when he was “three or four”.

He was born into a golf-loving family – readers of The Local Answer online will know that his mum Jenny is soon to become president of England Golf – and was playing golf even before he was playing rugby.

“My parents stuck a golf club in my hand when I was very young,” recalls Clink, “although I didn’t become a member of Lilley Brook straight away because in those days you weren’t allowed to join the club until you were 12.”

By that time Clink had also been introduced to rugby and he was pretty good at it almost immediately.

“It was in my last year at Charlton Kings Junior School when I was 11,” he said. “They started a seven-a-side team.”

From there he progressed very quickly.

“I went to Cheltenham Grammar School where I was coached by Pete Kingston, the England scrum-half,” he said.

“I played for the county schools at under-16 and under-18 level and was also in the South West Schools squad at under-16 age group.”

Given his stature Clink was always going to play in the second row, and while he loved the rough and tumble of rugby he was equally happy staying out of the rough on golf’s fairways.

And he was making a similarly good impression in golf.

“I first got into the county junior golf team when I was 15,” he said. “I’d have been playing off five then.”

These days he plays off two and his handicap has been as low as one.

Golf obviously takes up most of his time these days when it comes to sport but although he hasn’t played rugby for the best part of two decades, he remains a huge fan of the oval ball game and still goes up to The Newlands on occasion to watch his former club, a club where he was treasurer for five years after hanging up his boots.

Clink is an easy man to interview but ask him which sport he prefers, rugby or golf, and he hesitates before saying: “That’s a very good question, I don’t know!

“I can’t choose, I like them equally. I loved playing rugby and I still love rugby, but I love being out on a golf course on a nice summer’s day, there’s nothing better.”

And it’s fair to say that there weren’t too many better rugby players coming through the ranks in Cheltenham when Clink left school.

“I played a season at Old Pats but then Cheltenham started an under-21 team and they invited me along to play,” he said.

And it was to prove a good move for Clink.

“I played two games for them and then I found myself in the first team,” he said. “That wasn’t the idea!”

That was in 1987/88 in the days when Richie Akenhead was the club’s coach.

“Our captain was the non-tackling scrum-half John Little,” laughed Clink. “That’s how I always introduce him to people, he hates it!

“By the end of that first season 11 players from the under-21s were in the first team – players like Dave Kearsey, Speedy Roberts, John Morris, Paul Sargison.”

This was also around the time when league rugby was being rolled out across the country and Clink recalls Cheltenham started in National Three South.

“We managed to stay in the national league for a few years before getting relegated to the South West Division,” said Clink.

“Then a lot of the older Gloucester players joined the club – Richard Mogg, Malcolm Preedy, Richard Pascall, John Brain, Sam Masters, Bob Phillips, Don Caskie, Nick Marment and Derrick Morgan – and we had a really, really strong side.

“We got back into the national league and it was a great time for the club.”

Clink played alongside Brain in the engine room in those days – “He was pretty handy!” he said – but admitted that once that team broke up, it was difficult to find replacements of the same quality.

Nevertheless it was great fun while it lasted and Clink also enjoyed great success at county level as well.

“I was in the Gloucestershire team that beat Warwickshire in the county championship final at Twickenham in 1996,” he said.

“That was a fantastic day. We played in front of a crowd of around 15,000.”

And that was just one of a number of high-profile games that Clink played in over the years.

“We used to play Gloucester twice a year so they were always big games,” he said.

Cheltenham also played at Harlequins in the fourth round of the Pilkington Cup in the 1996/97 season, and Clink has fond memories of that game even though they were beaten 47-11.

“They were full of internationals but we absolutely didn’t disgrace ourselves,” he said.

“Peter Buxton was in our team, he was up against Laurent Cabannes and Bucko took him apart.

“Jason Leonard played as did hooker Keith Wood. Wood got a dead leg against us and I think it caused him to miss the first game of that season’s Five Nations Championship.”

Clink played on for another couple of years or so after that momentous game at the Stoop, but it’s fair to say that once he stopped playing rugby his golf really took off.

He was captain of the county team for four years until 2008 and one of the players who he included in his teams was a certain Chris Wood, who has since turned professional and gone on to play in the Ryder Cup.

“He was a really good youngster,” said Clink of the Long Ashton player.

Clink took a keen interest in all the youngsters coming through the system during his time as county captain, and these days he has a very keen interest in all things Lilley Brook in his position as Chairman of the club.

His current term is due to end in March next year but if he is re-elected it’s likely that he’ll continue in his role for a while yet, even though he’ll assume the role of president-elect of the Gloucestershire Golf Union in 2019 as well.

“I’ve got to stop at some point but I probably will carry on if the members want me to,” he said. “There will be quite a bit going on at the golf club – development of the golf course, improving the irrigation system, repair of the clubhouse, getting new kit.”

With everything that is going on it’s a wonder he has found time to play as much golf as he has.

But over the years he has certainly played a lot and he has been good enough to win some decent tournaments as well.

So what is the best tournament he has won?

“I won the national Family Foursomes at Burhill in Surrey with my mum,” he said, “that would probably be top from my mum’s point of view.

“I also won the West of England Winter Foursomes with Stuart Little a year after I’d retired from rugby, and I’ve won the Club Championship at Lilley Brook three times and the county foursomes title twice.”

He also competed in national competitions with his dad, Mike, who was a very decent golfer himself and at his best played off six.

“We’d go away for a week and I used to really enjoy it,” he said. “But we never really used to do any good.

“My dad used to get so nervous because he desperately didn’t want to let me down.”

He never did, of course, and Dad would certainly have been very proud that his son is to become president of the Gloucestershire Golf Union.

Because of his many other commitments it took Clink a week before he said ‘yes’ to taking on the role, but he said: “It’s an honour, I’ll probably be one of the youngest presidents they’ve had.”

He’ll be 53 when he takes on the top county job and while he’s certainly not one of those people who wishes his life away, he admits that he is quite looking forward to his 55th birthday.

“That’s when I’ll be able to play county seniors golf,” he said, “that’s my next target. I’m in a limbo period at the moment because I’m not good enough nor have the inclination to play first-team county golf.

“So I can’t wait until I’m 55 when I can enter all the national senior events.”

And history suggests that he’ll do jolly well in them as well.