RUGBY players from the Royal Marines will take on an Oxfordshire club side in memory of a fallen soldier.

Keen sportsman and Marine Dale Gostick was killed in action in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in May 2008.

The 22-year-old, from Great Haseley, near Thame, was a talented rugby player who joined Wheatley RFC as a teenager and rapidly progressed into the first XV.

The former Wheatley Park School pupil, who died when the Viking armoured vehicle he was driving struck a mine, was initially honoured in a game between Wheatley and Littlemore in September last year.

Wheatley and the Marines will do battle on the playing fields at Holton – in what is hoped to become an annual event to remember Mr Gostick and other fallen soldiers.

Wheatley club chairman Peter Ramsdale said: “We are delighted to welcome the Marines here to Wheatley. There will be serving Marines, and some of Dale’s colleagues.

“We will be able to give them a warm welcome that Dale would have appreciated, and I look forward to a keenly fought contest.”

He added: “This marks the relationship between the Marines and Dale.

“We invited them here for the original game but they were out in Afghanistan so they couldn’t make it.

“The Marines are bringing about 60 people, so there should be a good turnout.”

He said everyone was welcome to watch the match and enjoy food and drink throughout the afternoon. There will also be a disco in aid of Help for Heroes.

Twelve months ago, Mr Gostick’s father John, 58, raised more than £3,500 for the charity with a six-day bike ride through France.