Dave Booth will bring the curtain down on a life-time’s involvement in rugby after this season’s North Gloucestershire Combination showpiece day at Kingsholm on Sunday.

The 52-year-old will step down as president of the Combination after the final whistle is blown in the Senior Cup final between Old Centralians and Coney Hill and insists he will walk away from the sport.

A trial separation – “I think I’ve only watched 10 minutes of rugby this season,” he said – will turn into a full-blown divorce once the formalities have been completed at the home of Gloucester rugby.

Andy Payne is also retiring as the Combination’s treasurer and secretary and Booth, who has been president for four years, said: “We’re standing down because it’s about time some new blokes came along to run things.

“We need some younger guys with good ideas to come forward and take up the reins.

“It’s time to freshen things up and bring in people with plenty of enthusiasm.”

Booth admits that it has been tough “cutting his ties” with rugby this season, all the more so because his son Ashley captains the 2nds at Hucclecote.

”I’ve done it to prove to myself that I could do it,” he said, “and I have found other things to do. The other Saturday I was up at the polo field at Brimpsfield.

“It was a lovely day and there was an aeroplane doing all these somersaults, it was wonderful.

“I’ve also been doing some work on the house and on my daughter’s house as well as looking after my wife Heather who has not been at all well.”

Even if Booth isn’t missing the rugby – and that may change, of course – rugby will certainly miss him.

The son of Gloucester legend Micky Booth, the scrum-half who played almost 500 games for the Cherry and Whites, Booth junior was almost playing rugby before he could walk and talk.

His formative playing years were shaped at Sir Thomas Rich’s where he started out as a nine like his dad before being switched to fly-half.

“I should have been a scrum-half,” he said, “but I got moved out so that Tony Bebbe could play at nine.

“Then when I went into the junior set-up at Longlevens I played in the centre with Mike Stubbs before ending up at full-back. They kept moving me further and further away from the action!”

From Longlevens Booth joined Hucclecote, where he lived, before “trying my luck at Gloucester”.

“I wasn’t good enough,” he admitted, “but I did it for my dad.”

Booth moved to Stroud and remembers making his Area League South debut for the club when league rugby was first introduced some 30 years ago.

“I had a nightmare,” he said. “I’d missed a few kicks at goal in the first half but it all came right in the end because I kicked the winning conversion and we won 9-7.”

A two-year spell at Stroud was followed by two years at Hucclecote and two years at Widden before returning to Hucclecote, the club with which he is most readily associated.

“I ended up playing for the 2nds and continued playing into my mid-40s to help bring the kids through,” he said.

That wasn’t to be the last time that Booth laced his boots, however, because he was to become one of the driving forces in the Combination’s vets team who would play half-a-dozen games a season.

“That was great fun,” said Booth. “You were playing with many of the players who you’d been kicking the c*** out of for many years. It was funny, weird, but nice.

“It was a privilege to play with people like Mike Bayliss, who had been captain of Matson, and Gary Fowke of Spartans. Richard Mogg, the Gloucester centre, also played a few games for us.

“We all became good friends through playing alongside each other and drinking together.

“We used to go out to as many clubs as we could – Old Cents, Brockworth, Gloucester Old Boys, Hucclecote. It’s fallen away a bit this season though which is a shame.”

In his capacity as president of the Combination, Booth also spent one season trying to visit as many clubs in the city on a Saturday afternoon as possible, watch a game and then stay for a few beers afterwards and have a chat.

“I would then do a write-up for the club’s web page on the day’s events,” he said.

As you’d expect from someone who has played and been involved in rugby for so long, Booth has many stories to tell and he enjoys recounting them.

“I started my career with Longlevens 4ths,” he chuckled. “We were away at Dursley and I remember going into our changing room and picking up my kit before heading for Dursley.

“Unfortunately I picked up the wrong kit and to make matters worse, I’d picked up the kit belonging to Pete Jones, the prop who went on to play for Gloucester and Scotland, who was playing at Longlevens.

“When I got to Dursley I opened my kit bag and instead of my nice boots, shirt and packet of fags there was a pair of big boots and massive shorts.

“I had to borrow a pair of boots and I think Pete needed a whole new kit! My fags had gone too!”

Those were the days when virtually all of Gloucester’s players were made and developed at junior clubs within a 20-mile radius of Kingsholm.

These days it is very different with Premiership clubs bringing in players from all over the world in the constant search for success.

While some traditionalists regret this turn of events, Booth can at least find a positive when it comes to Combination finals day.

“It’s probably the only time these junior players are going to get the chance to play at Kingsholm,” he said. “In the old days all of Gloucester’s players were coming from clubs in and around the area so it’s added a bit of spice to the competition.

“There’s still something special about running out at Kingsholm.”

The North Gloucestershire Combination has, however, in common with other Combinations, had problems in recent years with clubs pulling out of the end-of season cup matches as league games have taken on more and more importance.

That has saddened Booth who has held up Twickenham-bound Spartans as an example to other clubs.

“They’ve got a proud history,” he said. “They always played their cup matches and look at them now, a real success story.”

The cup finals extravaganza will take place a day after Gloucester’s final league game of the season at home to Exeter.

Among the Kingsholm faithful that day will be Booth’s dad, who, as sure as night follows day, will be sitting alongside another Gloucester legend, Peter Ford.

“They like to pick holes in the players even though they can’t pronounce their names,” Booth laughed. “They were at one of the European games not so long ago and they didn’t recognise Gloucester when they ran out in their European kit. They thought they were watching Cinderford!”

Booth’s obvious enjoyment of rugby makes it all the more surprising about his decision to sever his links with the sport.

However, it could just be that this is one trial separation that has a happy ending.

“I may go back to rugby,” he said. “The break might rekindle my enthusiasm, recharge the batteries. We’ll have to see.”