Lydney Rugby Football Club

Lydney

Full name	Lydney Rugby Football Club
Founded	1888; 129 years ago (1888)
Location	Lydney, Gloucestershire
Ground(s)	Regentsholme (Capacity: 1,500)
Coach(es)	Paul Williams
Captain(s)	Will Jones
League(s)	National League 3 South West
2015–16	3rd
Official website
www.pitchero.com/clubs/lydneyrugbyfootballclub/

Lydney Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Lydney, Gloucestershire. The club played in the fourth tier of the English rugby union league system; National League 2 South during 2014–15, finishing in 14th place and were relegated to National League 3 South West where they finished in third place. The previous season (2013–14) they were promoted as champions from National League 3 South West.

The Lydney and Aylburton Rugby Football Club was formed at a meeting was organized by Mr F A Fream on Thursday 11 October 1888, after members of the Lydney and Aylburton Cricket Club had expressed an interest in playing a "winter" game, which was already played by a number of clubs in the area. The first game was played at Lydney on 22 November 1888 against Coleford who won by 3 tries and 1 conversion to nil. The club was originally nicknamed "the Tinplaters", but later were more widely known as the Severnsiders.

The club enjoyed several successful runs in the John Player Cup during the 1980s, including a match against Sale, then the top club side in England, on 23 January 1983. The match was televised on the BBC's Rugby Special, with Lydney narrowly losing 9 – 16.

Upon its founding, Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, later Governor-General of New Zealand, was invited to become President of the club. He held this position for 70 years until his death in 1958.

From the early days Lydney had produced a steady stream of players who achieved County honours. Austin Lewis also had English and Welsh trials in 1904/5 and 1905/6.

No player has achieved senior international honours while playing for the club. However, having begun their careers with Lydney, Bev Dovey, Trevor Wintle [1] [2] [3], Chris Williams, Peter Kingston and Gordon Sargent won full England caps while playing for other clubs. England Women's International Georgia Stevens also played for Lydney.

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