Lifelong Cheltenham Town supporter Adrian Bailey is planning a big splash to mark his 80th birthday.

The former MP, who has been a Cheltenham season-ticket holder for the past 25 years, will swim 80 lengths when he turns 80 on Thursday 11th December.

He will also be raising money  for the Cheltenham Town Community Trust and he explained: "I've always swum the number of lengths to match my age on my birthday since I was about 60, but this is the first time I've done any fundraising.

“I wanted to do something a bit different, a bit special, as it’s my 80th birthday. I’m hoping to raise at least £1,000 but I’d like to raise more than that.”

Bailey, who was a Labour MP for West Bromwich West for 19 years from 2000, is a confident swimmer.

He completed 80 lengths in a training swim earlier in the week and said: “I normally do three lengths of crawl and then a length of breaststroke. I relax when I’m doing breaststroke, it works quite well.”

Bailey, a former pupil at Cheltenham Grammar School, took up swimming in his 40s following a hip replacement.

“I used to be a regular jogger before that,” said Bailey, who also played football and cricket in his younger days.

“I didn’t run competitively, but after the hip operation I needed to find something else to do, once I started swimming I just kept on going.”

He’s been going to Cheltenham Town since 1958 and remembers the first game he saw was a 4-0 win over Kidderminster Harriers.

He used to watch them play with his dad Ted and sister Jennifer Hood, who these days lives in Gloucester.

It was in the days of Bill Gourlay, Joe Hyde, Frank Carnie, Augie Scott and Rex Dunlop, and Bailey, who is also a big Gloucestershire cricket fan, said: “It was very different back then, the club were playing in the Southern League.”

Bailey has no hesitation in saying that his best time as a fan was in the late 1990s and early noughties when current boss Steve Cotterill was in his first spell as manager.

“That was an amazing period,” Bailey said. “He took us from the Southern League to Division One.

“When I first started watching Cheltenham I never imagined we’d be knocking Burnley out of the FA Cup.”

And Bailey, who lives in Oldbury with his wife Jill, but has a flat in Cheltenham, is delighted that Cotterill has returned to his hometown club this season.

“There’s been a real upturn in our form,” he said. “It’s been a huge transformation, there’s a real buzz around the club.”

Cheltenham, who have won two and drawn one since Cotterill returned to the club, host League Two leaders Walsall tomorrow.