Gloucester Rugby Heritage, a non-profit charity run by volunteers, has been producing a series of large format books to record the history of the Gloucester Club. The first was "Kingsholm: Castle Grim, the Home of Gloucester Rugby," which recounted the development of Kingsholm over the first 125 years of rugby at the ground. There followed "Representative Rugby at Kingsholm: International, County and Invitation Teams" and "Gloucester Up for the Cup: Gloucester Rugby in Cup Competitions".
The fourth in the series, "Gloucester Rugby: The Players" has been published recently. The largest yet, at nearly 400 pages, a team of authors has taken three years to research and write it. Many great players and many great characters have played for the Club, and, after much debate, the most notable were selected for individual profiles. Every player who could boast at least 100 appearances, every player who won an international cap whilst a Gloucester player, and all club captains have been accorded a profile, as have others who did something extraordinary or were a particular favourite of the Kingsholm faithful. The result is 375 individual player profiles, which form the main section of the book.
There is also an appendix which lists the career records of the 1,985 players who have represented the Club, 1873-2022. There are quite a few who played only once, and many who had long playing careers, with Alan Brinn's 574 appearances being the most.
The book is well illustrated, with a photograph accompanying every player profile, and a set of stunning action photos from the club photographer.
George Skivington, Head Coach at Gloucester Rugby, wrote the foreword for the book. He believes that the Club is very special because of its heritage, and has ensured that every player understands this by getting them to research former players. He says that "I feel very privileged to be part of this great club and look forward to uncovering more great stories in this latest edition". He will find no shortage of them amongst the player profiles.
