Inside the space of just five years, Gravesend Gremlins have made some real progress.

Gravesend’s ladies’ team reformed in 2019 and then they, like most around them, were impacted by the Covid pandemic a matter of months later.

But the Gremlins now appear to be firmly back on track.

“The club is really behind the ladies’ team,” said captain Rebecca Curtis. “They have been since the get-go when we reformed back in 2019.

“Since then, we have just gone from strength-to-strength, really, with our numbers, our coaching staff and, obviously, that’s starting to show on the pitch.

“Covid kind of hit at not a great time when we had just started off again.

“We’d only just entered our first season of being in a league so that did put everything on hold. But this is our fourth season in a league.

“We’re going from strength-to-strength, so we can’t complain.”

Gravesend Gremlins play in NC 2 South East (East) and have had a mixed start to the season having already played Thanet Wanderers and Aylesford Bulls - two of the big-hitters from their division.

Curtis admitted: “There’s a couple of teams we’ll come up against this season where we know that it’s going to be tough.

“But apart from those couple of teams, relatively, the teams we’re coming up against in this league have the same ability as us.

"It’s competitive and most games could go either way.”

The new campaign has seen Gravesend-based award-winning ready-to-drink cocktail business The Drinks Bureau join the list of the side’s sponsors.

“It’s great we have so many local sponsors on board with our team,” said Curtis.

“It’s absolutely amazing the support we get from them and the fact that they want to support women’s rugby. It’s a huge deal.

“Especially The Drinks Bureau this season, they are sponsoring, not just us as a team, but our forward-of-the-match and back-of-the-match each game.

“They have really been welcomed into our team of sponsors this season.”

With a Women’s Rugby World Cup on home soil around the corner next year, Curtis revealed there’s been a steady flow of recent interest in players joining the team.

She said: “We are getting one or two new members to the team every other week.

“There’s a lot of adverts out there for women’s rugby, and encouraging people to get involved in contact sport, with the Women’s World Cup coming up next year. It’s great.”

There’s a real range in Gravesend Gremlins’ squad with some players under 18 and some as old as 47.

“We get anything between 15 and 20 at training every week,” Curtis said. “We have a squad of around 28 players that are match ready out of 41 players.

“Some of those may not be ready for contact sport in match ability, they may not be old enough to play - we have to get our under-17s signed off by the RFU to play up - so we might not see them as being ready for that sign-off yet.

“We have a couple of players that just come to training for training. They don’t want to play matches so we do have a full range of abilities.

“For a lot of us, it’s not just a hobby or a sport and about being competitive with other teams. It’s about coming together as a family network.

“That’s not just with ‘our’ team - it’s with the whole club, as well - and it really is like another family.”

While things are broadly going well for the Gremlins, they are more than happy to help other clubs out in the area where they can, too.

Curtis said: “We have got Old Gravesendians next door, they have a ladies’ section, and New Ash Green recently have been struggling for players.

“They have helped us out, we have helped them out, so we’re very much a team that’s just wanting to be supporting women’s rugby.”

Gravesend Gremlins remain on the look-out for new faces where they can attract them.

“We’re constantly recruiting,” confirmed Curtis, whose team normally trains on Wednesdays.

“Some of us have been playing for a good few years and we’re coming up to that point where we may not have another season in us!

“Therefore, it’s about making sure that we find people who are interested, getting them down and getting them to play.

“Hopefully, they - especially the younger generation that’s coming through - fall in love with it.”

In-house, Gravesend have launched an under-12s team, from which Curtis hopes players will one day go on to play for the ladies’ side.

She said: “That has been going from strength-to-strength.

“Hopefully, in seasons to come, we will have those girls to feed into the ladies’ team.”

The Gremlins, beaten 89-14 at home to Aylesford as the teams raised money for the Rugby Against Cancer charity on Sunday, are next in action at Lordswood Valkyries on Sunday, December 8.

Visit Gravesend Women Rugby’s Instagram page for further details.