It’s not been a vintage season by Cheltenham North’s standards – but team manager Malcolm Kedward has still loved every minute of it.

That’s because the club he has served for 50 years is back playing in the Gloucestershire division after six wilderness years playing clubs in the Midlands.

“It’s been absolutely brilliant,” enthused Kedward. “We’re back playing teams we should be playing – Cheltenham Saracens, Gordon League – and it shows just what we’ve been missing.”

The results on the pitch may not have been great on their return to Gloucester Premier, but at least the North are still playing league rugby.

That was in doubt two or three years ago when they informed the RFU that they wanted to return to the Gloucestershire division. “It took us two years to make the switch,” said Kedward. “We told them that if they didn’t let us go we’d drop out of the leagues altogether and just play friendlies.

“It wasn’t our choice to go into the Midlands division. It was ridiculous. We were playing teams in Birmingham and Coventry and we were losing players because the games were so far away. We used to be a tour game for teams who came to play at Stoke Orchard!

“Now we’re doing a fraction of the travelling and everybody’s much happier. We just wanted to come home.”

Another area of the club that gives Kedward great satisfaction is the thriving junior set-up.

“We’ve got 300 players from under-6 right through to under-16,” he said. “It’s absolutely brilliant and just shows the continuing attraction of rugby.”

Kedward, now 70, has taken on just about every job at the North since calling time on his career as a tighthead prop. He made his debut at the age of 20 and said: “I love the club, I’ve been there all my life.”

His dedication and hard work for the North and the Cheltenham Combination – he has been involved with the Combination for 30 years and is currently their chairman – was recognised last year when he was presented with an award by Princess Anne for his “exceptional service” to rugby.

And his enthusiasm for the sport shows no sign of dropping off any time soon.

He is full of praise for the job being done by new head coach James Wilkinson and his assistant Scott Pollock.

“It’s not been easy for them,” he said, “we’ve had horrendous injuries. We’ve also had lots of unavailabilities... people going shopping! We even had one guy who was getting married and he said two months before the wedding that he couldn’t play on the upcoming Saturday because he was going cake tasting!”

• Cheltenham North’s Phil Odam was one of 22 winners of the award for “exceptional service to rugby within the county” this year. The presentation was made by Princess Anne at Minchinhampton Rugby Club.