For three-quarters of a century Cirencester Rugby Club have been a beating heart in the town they represent.

And for the next 12 months that heart will be beating just a little bit faster as the club celebrate their 75^th anniversary, a year in which they will look back with pride while at the same time looking to the future with great optimism.

And with the future in mind, one of the club’s big aims in 2024 is to install some new floodlights at their ground at the Whiteway.

“Hopefully they’ll be in place before the end of the season,” said club president Nick Theakston. “The overall cost is about £80,000, we’re just shy of that figure. It will take about 12 weeks once the work starts.

“Pitch 3 will be completely floodlit and Pitch 2 will be backlit. At the moment we’ve just got floodlighting on the Paddock behind the clubhouse.

“The idea is that the new floodlighting will greatly improve our winter training facilities.”

They certainly should, which is very good news for coach Ashley Stephens, 1^st XV captain Ollie Gibson and all the players of course.

Cirencester’s flagship team play in Counties 2 Gloucestershire North and while the likes of Gordon League, Smiths and Old Patesians are setting a fast pace, Cirencester are more than holding their own in the 12-strong division.

“It’s a decent standard of rugby,” said Theakston. “There are some good teams in the division but on their day anyone can beat anyone, we’ve already beaten Smiths this season.”

Smiths have won back-to-back league titles so Cirencester’s 42-29 success back in October was a pretty impressive win.

A good 12 months on the field would obviously help the anniversary celebrations go with a swing that bit more. But win, lose or draw, there is certainly plenty going on at the club over the next year.

“We’ve got our end-of-season tour in the middle of May,” continued Theakston. “It’s a three-day trip and being organised by Ollie Gibson. At the moment we’ve got 50 people signed up – 30 players, two coaches and 18 supporters – which is pretty good going.”

They’re heading to Spain to play Malaga – Theakston and chairman David Reeves are among the supporters – and Theakston added: “We went to Lyon at the end of last season, that was a fantastic trip.

“We beat a team called OSGL [Olympique Lyonnais St Genis Laval], it was probably our best performance of the season.”

They’ll be hoping for more of the same in southern Spain, of course, when they tackle a club who were founded one year before them in 1948.

“When you look at some of the clubs close to us like Stroud and Painswick, we’re a relatively young club,” continued Theakston.

“They’ve both been around for more than 150 years but even though we’re a young ‘un by comparison, we’re a well-established club.

“We’ve got our own ground, a nice clubhouse and there are some great people involved with the club.”

As with pretty much all sports clubs, Cirencester Rugby Club would like more people to get involved.

“Hopefully, our 75^th anniversary celebrations will enthuse people to want to join in,” said Theakston.

“We’re a big part of what the town has to offer. We look upon ourselves as a facility for the town of Cirencester and we’ve opened our doors to Cirencester Hockey Club who use us as a base.

“Geographically we’re close to the town centre which is always an advantage.”

And anyone who does decide to get involved with Cirencester Rugby Club will find a club that offers something for pretty much everyone.

The club run two adults men’s teams and have a thriving junior section which includes the Cotswold Lionesses who cater for girls who want to play rugby.

The juniors are the lifeblood of any club, of course, and they were delighted when they were asked to form a guard of honour for the 1^st XV for one of their games earlier in the season.

That was a big success and another guard of honour is planned in the coming months to mark the club’s 75^th anniversary.

“We’re going to invite everyone who has ever worn the Cirencester shirt to come along to welcome the current players onto the pitch,” said Theakston. “That should be pretty special.”

It certainly should and there’s plenty more to look forward to over the coming months with the club hosting their ever-popular Youth 7s Festival on Sunday 30^th April and the club’s end-of-season dinner/dance set to take place in June.

Theakston will be one of many who will be an enthusiastic supporter of both of those events and for him the most important thing is still to have fun.

“It would be great if the 1^st XV could win promotion and play Level 7 rugby,” he said. “We’ve done it before.

“At the moment we’re at Level 8 which is still a good level. But we have to be realistic about how far we can go, we won’t pay our players.

“As president I want everyone to enjoy the club, enjoy the atmosphere and be a participant.”