The final whistle may be about to blow on Drybrook Rugby Club’s 2016/17 campaign but the go-ahead Forest of Dean club are already making for plans for next season.

And a special one it will be too as the South West One West club prepare to celebrate their 125th anniversary.

A celebratory game against a legendary Gloucester XV has already been provisionally arranged and there will also be a match between Drybrook veterans and a Forest of Dean veterans XV.

A 125th anniversary dinner will be held at Kingsholm on Friday, August 11, and there will be a celebration book to mark the club’s 125 years.

That book will be written by current chairman Paul Mason, although it is not quite as arduous a job as it sounds.

“I wrote a book for the club’s 100th anniversary,” he chuckled, “so I’ve only got to do the last 25 years.”

It should make happy reading as the last few years have been kind to Drybrook and this season has been no exception.

“We’ve been really pleased with it,” said Mason. “We finished fifth last season and we thought that was brilliant but we were a long way off the three or four clubs above us.

“This season Weston-super-Mare have walked away with it and Clevedon are a good side but we’re right up there with the rest of the teams.”

Mason said Drybrook’s best result this season was the 16-16 draw at home to Weston on March 4 when they became the first side to prevent them from winning in the league this season.

He says Drybrook’s success this season has been a “real collective effort” although he is full of praise for captain and centre Ben Large.

“We’ve got quite a young team and Ben’s only 23 but he’s been really good this season,” said Mason.

“He’s a very good player, very fit and he’s got an old head on young shoulders. He leads by example, tackles well and runs well.”

Large’s family is a big part of the club. His sister Ceri still helps out even though she is an England international while brothers Dean and Dan also play for the club. Dean is also the club’s treasurer.

Ben Large may be the leader on the field but Mason reckons the strength of the first team is in the back row.

“We’ve got five quality players for three positions,” said Mason, “and it’s a question of trying to keep everyone happy.”

Sam Peaper is the leading try scorer this season but fellow back rowers Joe Tingle, Danny Price, Mitch Bourne and Mitch Renton have all played their part.

The club now play just one level below the national league and Mason admits that he would love to see the club mount a serious charge for promotion at some stage in the future.

“Personally, I’d love a stab at the national league even if it was only for one season,” he said. “But I recognise how hard that is and I don’t think it would be sustainable over a long period for a rugby club in a little village like ours.”

Not that there would be any shortage of players if the club did reach the ‘promised land’. They currently field 20 teams and Mason admitted “we’re bursting at the seams”.

They’ve got three men’s senior teams, a veterans’ team, a colts team, two women’s senior teams, three age group girls’ teams and boys’ age group teams from under-7 through to under-16.

While the figures look healthy enough, Mason says there is “tremendous competition for players” between themselves and the other seven clubs in the area – Cinderford, Lydney, Berry Hill, Bream, Westbury, Ross and Newent.

“If any young player shows any interest in playing rugby, we’re all after him,” said Mason.

Drybrook are helped by the fact that head coach Tim Stevenson works at Hartpury College and he has brought a handful of students into the club.

Mason, himself, is Drybrook born and bred. Now 58, he played fly-half for the club “before retiring some time ago”.

“I was actually born in Drybrook because I was born at home,” he said. “I now live just over the hill in Mitcheldean. It’s a 1.2-mile walk from the rugby ground to my house... and I’ve done that walk a few times!”