The 2015/2016 rugby season was a very sad chapter in the history of Crickhowell Rugby club, as they were forced to disband due to a lack of players and not being able to raise a side for their WRU league commitments.

Former players were hauled out of retirement to try and desperately make up the numbers but ultimately this wasn’t sustainable and the club made the difficult decision to pull out of their fixtures for the rest of the year, lick their wounds and vow to come back stronger in the following season.

The club appointed a promising new coaching team ready for the new season with former player Gareth Bowen taking on the reigns as head coach and Crickhowell stalwart Jim Aylett coaching the forwards.

The new coaching team have used their pre-season time well, recruiting many new players from the local area and tailoring the training sessions to try to get the players to adopt a fast and skillful style of rugby, by going back to basics and training with high intensity.

The players have reacted well to the new coaching regime with a squad of 35 now registered.

The turnaround has been so remarkable that the club is getting to the point where it is even considering running a second side due to the large number of players registered.

In order to forge a link between this new generation of players and former players, the club is organising an old boys reunion sponsored game on Saturday November 12 at Parc Broyd with a 2pm kick-off.

All former players, committee members and supporters are welcome to come along and enjoy a few beers whilst watching the current side in action against Girlings RFC in the league.

After the game, the entertainment will continue back at the club’s spiritual home, the Britannia Inn in Crickhowell, where the Welsh rugby game against Argentina will be showing and talk will no doubt turn to tales of exaggerated past playing exploits and even a song or two!