TWELVE players from Dursley Rugby Club turned heads when they tackled Mount Snowdon wearing nothing but their ‘budgie smugglers’ to fundraise in memory of beloved coach Ross Reeves, who died in April.

The scantily-clad players climbed Wales’ highest peak on Sunday, to launch a year of fundraising for the British Heart Foundation in Ross’s memory.

A hugely respected coach at Dursley Rugby Club, Ross suffered a heart attack in April, aged 60.

“When we sadly lost Ross earlier this year it was a completely out of the blue heart incident,” said Josh Bailey, Men’s Senior 1st XV player.

“People who knew Ross will know that he was an incredibly fit man, so it was truly a shock to everyone.

“We decided during lockdown that we wanted to commemorate Ross in a really significant way as he’d had such a profound impact on so many of us that have transitioned into men’s rugby over the last few years, so we thought why not fundraise for the British Heart Foundation.”

Nicknaming themselves the ‘Snowdozen’, the players from the men’s senior section hatched the plan to climb Snowdon.

“We’d recently, coincidently, organised custom budgie smugglers for the players and thought what a fantastic opportunity to showcase our new stash,” said Josh.

“Everyone knows us rugby players are most at home in little to nothing in all sorts of weather,” he joked.

“We all had a lot of warning beforehand about chaffing due to the budgie smugglers, but I can personally vouch for that not being an issue.”

Since lockdown restrictions were eased, the community in Snowdonia has struggled with visitors hiking up the mountain leaving litter, dog mess and human excrement behind.

Aware of this, the players were unsure of what kind of welcome to expect.

“We weren’t sure how our appearance would be taken upon our arrival, considering the amount of issues the locals have had recently with mountain goers,” said Josh.

“But as soon as we started our climb people thought it was brilliant.

“The very first group we came across about 100m in asked for photos with us all and wished us luck.”

“We were fairly lucky with the weather, up until we hit the fog about two thirds of the way up. “From that point on it was definitely a bit tricky, all the boys did really well though pushing on through the cold.

“The worst bit was the queue at the summit, which we had to wait in to have our picture taken. “But the entire way up people were taking pictures, videos and cheering us on.

“People were even giving us cash donations as we were going along.”

The players managed to get up and down the mountain in dead on three hours, and in so doing raised £2,010 of their overall £5,000 fundraising target for the year.

To donate to Dursley Rubgy Club’s fundraiser visit: justgiving.com/fundraising/drfc-mens-bhf-fundraiser