Cheltenham North
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Cheltenham North
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
Cheltenham North RFC has been enjoying a fine campaign this
season and continues to play an important role in their local
community. Rugby Club Magazine recently caught up with Manager
Neil Carpenter to find out more.
Involvement
He told us, “I have been involved
with Cheltenham North since the age of
12 when they put an advert out in the
local paper looking for players to run
an U12 side. I made my first team debut
back in 1987 and have been involved in
the 1st team ever since, in fact I am still
playing for the 1sts this season.”
The Role
“The most challenging aspects in the
role of Rugby Manager is trying to get
players to be available, there is always
players who play week in week out but
you do get players occasionally being
unavailable and whilst we are doing
well we have such a small squad that this
becomes a challenge to get a strong side
out each week.
Also, attracting players to the club,
in an area dominated by rugby teams it
is very hard to attract players, so we are
doing are best to give the players the best
environment to play rugby. The reward
is seeing the end product of everything
that the coaching team of James Wilkins,
Isiah Young and Brad Hepi being
brought to the game we are playing at
the moment.”
Atmosphere
“The mood at the club is really good
at the moment, the side is playing well
and challenging for promotion, whilst
playing a really attractive style of rugby.
We have also challenged the players
to organise social events each month,
which they are buying into, as well as the
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rugby we are playing and this is creating
a really good mood within the club.
We have also been training at a
local boxing club called Kings ABC and
Xtreme Gym and this has created a really
good atmosphere with the players as
well as keeping them fit. As well as that
we managed to tie up a deal with Crew
Clothing for all our after match attire, we
had an evening at the shop which went
down really well with the players who
all look really smart in there pink shirts.” have bounced back this time round. We
did have a struggle in the first couple of
games, as I said before, once the players
started to buy into what we are doing, it
made the last few months a lot easier for
the club.
Our plans on the playing side are to
push for promotion, which is a realistic
target, and to get a regular 2nd team out.
Also, we now have plans in place for a
new million pound clubhouse so raising
money for this project is a major plan.”
Present Community
“2017 was a hard year for the club,
we had to accept relegation last season
due to a league reorganisation, but we “We are most definitely a community
club, being part of the village of Bishops
Cleeve we try and immerse ourselves