Andy Payne, the driving force for more than a decade behind the ever-popular end-of-season North Gloucestershire Combination cup competitions, has said that this season’s tournament will be his last in an official capacity.

The 61-year-old has been running the three competitions since 2012 when he first joined the North Gloucestershire Combination. He has served as the Combination’s treasurer for the past 13 years, a role he will also relinquish at the Combination’s AGM later this year.

Payne, who is Gloucester born and bred, has being trying to take a step back for the past two or three years, but he insisted: “This year will be my last.”

The one-time Beaufort School pupil has been a well-known figure in grassroots rugby for some 40 years.

The former prop played for Widden Old Boys – his only club – for close on 20 years before joining the club’s youth set-up as a coach.

“My kids wanted to play rugby,” he explained. “Then when they were short of referees I started refereeing their games.”

He also refereed adult rugby before becoming a major player on the administrative side with the North Gloucestershire Combination.

At 5ft 8in, Payne would be considered small to be a prop these days, but he will be in the front row when the draw for this year’s North Gloucestershire Combination cup combinations is made by a Gloucester player on Monday 3^rd March.

The Senior Cup and Junior Cup finals will take place at Kingsholm on Sunday 25^th May, part of a three-day festival of rugby which will begin on Friday 23^rd May, a festival which is set to include walking rugby, mixed ability rugby, county championship men’s and women’s matches between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and a ladies’ invitational game between Dursley and Hucclecote.

All the games will take place at Kingsholm with the county championship games being played on the Saturday and the invitational ladies’ game on the Sunday alongside the two Combination cup finals.

The North Gloucestershire Combination’s Glanville Cup final is set to take place on Friday 23^rd May at a venue yet to be decided.