Painswick captain Craig Mayo has been with the club for 19 years and as with anyone who has spent that amount of time with one club he has known some peaks and troughs.

Happily Painswick are on an upturn and have been among the leading clubs in Gloucestershire Two North this season.

Mayo, a fly-half who can also play full-back, joined the club as a 17-year-old and has been a loyal servant ever since.

He is in his fourth season as skipper and as positions on the field go – he describes himself as “more of a kicking fly-half” – the number 10 position is a pretty good place to lead the side.

Not that Mayo has always been a fly-half because when he was growing up he played at no.8.

That was at Marling School and during his time at Stroud Rugby Club when he played for the juniors and the Colts.

So why did he switch from the pack to the backs?

“I stopped growing and everyone else carried on,” he laughed. “At school I was fairly big but when I got to 17 or 18 I wasn’t anymore.”

It should be said that Mayo is still 6ft which is pretty tall in anyone’s book although obviously not tall enough to play no.8 in the cut and thrust of rugby in Gloucestershire.

He was a good no.8 too, good enough to play for the county at age group level, but says he’s very happy he made the switch to fly-half.

He’s also happy not to have the place-kicking duties this season – inside centre Tom Powell is a specialist place-kicker and Mayo said: “That lessens the pressure a bit.”

And Mayo says that there is no pressure on Painswick to win promotion this season even though they were playing in Gloucestershire Premier not so long ago.

“We’ve not got huge aspirations to climb the leagues,” he said. “If we stay in this division for a couple of seasons that’s not a drama, we’re not looking to dominate Gloucestershire rugby.

“Our aim is to be a stable community club which can field two sides every week.”

Mayo added that the hope was that the flagship team would be able to compete in Gloucestershire One, which would be no mean achievement when you consider the tough times that Painswick have endured in recent years.

“The slide started about seven years ago,” said Mayo. “We lost players for a number of reasons and went from Gloucestershire Premier to what was Gloucestershire Three.”

Fortunately for the club a core of five or six players stuck with them although there were some difficult periods.

“We had a couple of tough years when we were struggling to get a side out,” said Mayo.

That was particularly tough for all those who really care about the club, a club with a rich history having been formed way back in 1872, and this season’s performances have certainly brought about renewed optimism.

“We want to get back to being a good, solid squad,” said Mayo. “We’re still building and it will take time but the foundations are there.”

The club currently have enough players to run one-and-a-half teams – they run a joint 2nd XV with Cainscross – and Mayo gives much of the credit for the club’s upturn to new coaches Dan Tanner and Shaun Jefferies.

Tanner is head coach and works on the technical side while Jefferies does a lot of the fitness work and Mayo said: “They’ve brought a change of culture to the club, a change of outlook.

“The younger players in the side have bought into their ideas and that makes life easier.”

Mayo says that he works tightly with the two coaches and coaching is certainly that something that interests him in the future, although not just yet.

“I’d like to string out the playing for a bit longer,” he chuckled.

And when he does eventually put away his gumshield for the last time, he’ll certainly be able to look back on some special moments, most notably when Painswick came within one game of playing in a final at Twickenham.

That was in the 2010/11 season when they were beaten in dramatic style after extra time in the semi-finals of the RFU Junior Vase by HAC, which stands for Honourable Artillery Company in case you are wondering!

“That was a hell of a run,” said Mayo. “They had Saracens and Wasps juniors playing in their team, we were punching miles above our weight.”

Painswick would love another cup run like that of course and if it happens in the 2030s or 2040s, there’s every chance that the Mayo name may again feature on their teamsheet.

That’s because Mayo senior’s son Charlie is already showing encouraging signs in the club’s junior set-up.

“He plays for under-7s,” said his proud dad. “It’s great to see so many juniors playing on a Sunday. Charlie is mad keen, he’s already got his Painswick shirt!”