Cheltenham Saracens Rugby Club will get their season up and running – literally – when they host their annual sevens tournament on Saturday.

The tournament has become a big favourite on the rugby calendar over the past few years – this will be the fifth time that is has been run in its present guise – and there will be a lot of familiar faces putting on the after-burners when the competition kicks off at 11am at King George V.

“It’s all local teams this year,” said Saracens chairman Jimmy O’Shea. “We’ve got Cheltenham, Cheltenham North, ourselves, Tigers Old Boys – they’re a team of players who came through the youth set-up at Cheltenham – Bredon, Chosen Hill, Old Pats and Smiths.

“There will be two groups of four – we’ll make the draw at 10.30am – and the top two from each will go forward to compete in the cup and the bottom two from each will take part in the plate.”

The tournament has been won for the past three years by a team from Wales – Wizards – but there was a concerted effort to make the event truly local this year.

“We’ve tried to do it a bit differently this time,” said O’Shea. “The tournament is going from strength to strength and we wanted to involve clubs from the area.”

Matches will be seven minutes each way but the players in the two finals will have to put in some overtime because those matches will be 10 minutes each way.

The plate final is scheduled for 4.30pm and the cup final for 5pm.

Each team will pay £50 to enter the competition and proceeds from the day will go towards the Kitty Kerr appeal.

“We’ll also be having an auction of rugby shirts and all the money raised from that will go to the appeal as well,” said O’Shea.

Eight-year-old Kitty has Diplegic Cerebral Palsy and her parents – Tina Duffy and Stuart Kerr – are raising money so that she can have a life-changing operation.

They need to raise £70,000 to £80,000 for the operation and the therapy that follows, which is not currently funded by the NHS, although their initial target is £30,000 by the end of the year which will be enough for her to have the operation.

Kitty’s brother Jack is in the Saracens squad on Saturday.