By the age of nearly 68 most people have retired, giving them time to relax, put their feet up and read The Local Answer in print or online.

Steve Yiend is almost 68, has retired and enjoys reading The Local Answer, but there is one big difference between him and pretty much all other 67-year-olds… he is still playing rugby.

Not for him a gentler pastime like bowls or croquet, he is playing a sport that is hard, physical and confrontational, where injuries are as much a part of the game as a crooked feed into a scrum.

And the grandfather of two is not just playing the occasional game either, he’s turning out week in, week out for Cheltenham Civil Service 2nds and is mixing it with friends and foe alike, some of whom are close on 50 years his junior.

“I love it,” he chuckled. “I play every week I’m available. I’m a blindside flanker although when I first started playing I was a winger.”

That was way back in 1975, in the days when World Cups and league rugby seemed as likely as teams calling themselves the Warriors, Chiefs or Sharks.

“I was 25 when I started playing rugby,” said Yiend, who will be 68 just 10 days before Christmas. “I started late and I think that’s one of the reasons I’m still playing now. I never played a lot of hard games in my early years.

“A friend of mine, Arthur Ingleby, got me into rugby. At the time I was playing Sunday League football for a team called Telehoist, but I wasn’t doing anything on Saturday afternoons so he asked me down.”

Yiend’s first game was away to Cainscross 4ths and he reckons that his first game of rough and tumble with an oval ball ended in a win.

“I soon found that I was much more akin to aggression than skill,” he chuckled. “All that running off the ball in football got too much.

“Rugby is much more stop-start and it’s a lot more in the head. You have to know when to go and when not to go.” And the fact that it was Service where he decided to make a go of it made it all the better for the then rugby novice.

“I’m Service through and through,” he said with obvious pride. “Apart from a couple of invitational games for the Pats they’re the only team I’ve ever played for.

“I played on the wing for five or six years – I could run in those days – but once I played wing forward I never wanted to play anywhere else.”

So how did the change of position come about?

“We were playing Cheltenham North at Agg Gardens,” he recalled. “We were short of a wing forward so I volunteered to play there. It was beautiful, you got to go everywhere where the ball was. I’ve not got the physique to play anywhere else in the scrum, I’m 13 stone dripping wet.”

He may not have been the biggest but he served time in the club’s 1st XV as well as all the other teams, in the days when clubs like Service would regularly field four or five sides on a Saturday afternoon.

It’s been a match made in heaven for more than 40 years now, although there have been occasions when Yiend admits he has come close to packing it all in.

“When I was 42 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease,” he said. “I lost two stone in six weeks and I thought that might be it as far as the rugby was concerned. Luckily it was in the summer and when the new rugby season came around I thought I’d give it another go.”

He doesn’t regret that decision for one moment of course, but rugby has dealt him some tough hands – he’s broken an arm and a leg and three years ago broke his collarbone.

“Each summer I do doubt myself,” he admitted. “I take it week by week but I want to continue playing for as long as I can.”

These days he doesn’t train – “The aches and pains are still there on a Wednesday,” he laughed – but he visits the gym twice a week with his good friend Rich Lowicki, who he has known since their days at All Saints School.

And although his first team days are understandably behind him – “I know my restrictions,” he said – he still enjoys teaching some of his younger colleagues in the 2nds a few tricks of the trade.

“The youngsters run round like chickens with their heads chopped off,” he chuckled, “and then can’t see how I get to the ball first!

“But I like the youngsters, there’s always plenty of good banter.

“They look at the me, this old bloke with no hair, but once the game starts they see you in a different light. I’m old enough to be their grandad but they treat me very well.”

So what does Yiend consider to be his strength these days?

“The lineout,” he replied. “I’m the number two jumper and because I’m quite light I’m easy to lift. I like to think I’ve got a good pair of hands and it’s a part of the game that I enjoy.”

And what about other parts of the game?

“As far as tackling is concerned, if someone runs straight at you you can make the tackle, although if it’s a second row you may be seeing a few dickie birds!” he laughed. “It’s when they run round you that I can’t do it.

“It’s the same when I run with the ball. A couple of paces and I’m looking for one of the younger lads to pass to.

“I still love the physicality but I realise what I can do and what I can’t do these days.”

He may not be able to do everything that he could in yesteryear but Service supporters needn’t worry about him hanging up his boots any time soon.

“I think I’m too committed,” he laughed. “I play because I love it. It’s a privilege to play rugby at my age, although all my family think I’m mad.

“My wife Annette would like it if I didn’t play anymore, she thinks it’s silly!

“But it’s not just the rugby, it’s the social side as well. If you don’t play, the booze doesn’t taste the same.

“In the summer booze doesn’t pass my lips. I go fishing for six hours at a time – there’s a maggot on one end of the rod and an idiot at the other end!”

And while he loves fishing with his pal Lowicki, he’d far rather be playing Bream in winter than catching bream in summer.

A natural talker, the one-time engineer has, as you’d expect, a bag rammed full of rugby memories.

Ask him who the best player he’s played alongside and he’ll answer “Paul Rodwell”.

“He was a bull of a player,” Yiend said. “He was an absolute stalwart of the club. He was the same age as me but sadly cancer took him at the age of 53.

“He’s one of the reasons I want to keep on playing and playing.

“We also had a really good 3rds team a few years ago. Our captain was Gareth Edwards and one year we lost only eight games of 32, and the following year we lost five.

“We were a real team and it was lovely.”

And the best players he’s come up against?

“Going back 20 years we used to play the Old Pats 3rds,” he recalled. “They had Dick Lewis, Dave Osman and Brian Stack and they were three really good players.”

The Pats would win those games more often than not but that never dampened Yiend’s enjoyment of all things rugby – and Service rugby in particular.

“Cheltenham Civil Service are a nice club,” he said. “We may not be the strongest rugby club but our pitches are the best in the county.”

And if Yiend has his way, he’ll be playing on them for many more years to come.