EXCITEMENT is building at Helensburgh Rugby Club with little more than a week to go until the return of the club’s end-of-season sevens festival.

Reintroduced to great acclaim last year, the 2024 event takes place at Ardencaple on Saturday, May 25 and is set to be significantly bigger than 12 months ago, with adult, under-18 and under-16 sections set to provide more than 50 sevens matches during the course of the day.

The adult tournament will see visiting teams from all over Scotland come to town, including Aberdeen University, Birkmyre, Glasgow Caledonian University, Irvine, Allan Glen’s, East Kilbride, Howe of Fife, Rendrew, Currie, Dalziel, Royal High and Stirling County, as well as a healthy representation from the Burgh’s own ranks and from the Royal Navy.

The action gets under way at 10am for the under-18s and under-16s and at 1pm for the adult event, with the latter sponsored by Cold Town Beer, while the afternoon will also feature a barbecue and DJ.

Once the dust has settled on the afternoon’s rugby, live music from Jaikits Fur Goalposts in the Ardencaple clubhouse will complete the day from 8pm.

For more information, see facebook.com/helensburghrugby (where you’ll also find links to all the club’s other social media platforms), email helensburghrugby@gmail.com or call 01436 674056.

Meanwhile, a home defeat to champions Bishopton in their final match on Saturday saw the Lomond and Helensburgh senior XV finish in mid-table in the final West Division 2 standings.

Having won promotion from West 3 last year, the step up was always going to prove a challenge for the L&H squad, but they underlined how much the decision last year to pool resources with Loch Lomond RFC has revitalised rugby in the area by securing a sixth-place finish.

With only pride left to play for, losses to Bishopton and to runners-up Cambuslang in their last two matches gave a slightly false impression of L&H's season overall, with the squad's final league record featuring eight wins and a draw from their 18 matches. 

Notable results included a 27-24 win away to Strathendrick in December and a 36-31 victory in early March at home to a Carrick side who would go on to finish third in the table.

While the season - next weekend's sevens tournament apart - might be over, touch rugby sessions will be held at Ardencaple every Friday night throughout the summer, while 'walking rugby' is also set to be relaunched.

New players are always welcome; to find out more about getting involved with the club, either as a player or as an off-the-pitch volunteer, go to helensburghrugby.co.uk where you'll find contact information for all the club's office-bearers.