It was a fully-booked reopening for Penarth Athletic Club yesterday as members arrived in socially distanced droves to soak in the beer garden sunshine.

Roughly 120 people enjoyed handmade pizza, freshly poured pints and summer tunes, marking a successful first night in the Club's exciting post-lockdown social calendar.

It is clear that the committee is doing all it can to ensure the club bounces back from a difficult year.

"It has been pretty tough," explained bar manager Hayley Clare. "But we've managed to keep our revenue pretty low over the time we've been shut and we're hoping for a booming summer.

"Normally, we'd only be open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but because it's the first week back we've opted to do Monday, Wednesday and Bank Holiday Monday too.

"The weather's nice so we thought we might as well bring the community together again."

The Artisan Cook, otherwise known as Rudy, was on site yesterday selling woodfired pizza from his van. On Wednesday, the Crepe Escape will take over catering duties for a 'Crepe and Prosecco' night, before Onzon Thai steps up on Friday night.

A Cricket Club 'Bear BBQ' will be held on Saturday followed by a Canadian poutine Sunday.

"So yeah, absolutely rammed and we're going to continue doing it," continued Hayley.

"The next Friday we've got fish and chips night and on the Saturday we have a 'Bear BBQ' for the rugby with lots of smokehouse stuff.

"We've never used this as a beer garden before, but we saw an opportunity because the community want to get out in a safe environment, with their children playing on the field, and have a glass of wine and relax.

"The mental health implications are huge. People need to speak with people. It's all about that sense of normality."

It was a jovial affair but COVID guidelines were strictly adhered to. Hayley says keeping members safe remains her top priority.

"It is of course harder when people have a drink to keep them social distancing, but we have COVID marshals and are policing it.

"Toilets are being sanitised every 45 minutes too so we can keep everyone safe, and the staff are having lateral flow tests. The last thing we want is for it to come back."

Among the revellers were Kimberly Luke-Edwards, Chris Edwards and Gareth Hubback.

"It's amazing," said Kimberly. "It's just great to be out in the sun and fresh air seeing people again face-to-face, as opposed to over Zoom.

"It's nice to have a slice of normality coming back bit by bit," added Chris. "To see things starting to return to normal and people enjoying themselves again is huge."

"And it's also huge from the mental health point of view," chimed in Gareth. "Everyone has been trapped in their houses and to be able to get out and make that distinction between work and normal life is amazing.

"A big congratulations to Hayley and the Committee for doing a huge job and putting it all together."