Chris Holder was a Rolls-Royce of a rugby player at the level he played.

And a very decent level it was too in a 20-year career that took in spells with Cheltenham, Moseley and Lydney as well as representative honours with Gloucestershire.

He played alongside some pretty decent names too – Jonny May, Daren O’Leary, Peter Buxton and Dan Vickerman to name just a few.

But this season, rugby on a Saturday afternoon will have to concede second best to the needs of his family for the first time.

The father to two small children – Freya, six, and Dougie, three – the 38-year-old has decided to take a step back although he will still help out on the coaching side at Lydney.

“After nearly 20 years I think it’s the right time,” said Holder.” Saturdays spent travelling to and playing in Cornwall aren’t the best for the better half and the children.”

Dougie has already started to show an interest in the oval ball – “He’s already kicking his dad,” laughed Holder – so rugby fans around Gloucestershire may only have to wait until the early 2030s before another Holder bursts onto the scene.

Holder senior, of course, made his name as fleet-footed centre, with a very neat sidestep and an eye for a pass.

He learned his rugby at Cheltenham, his hometown club, joining the minis and juniors section at the age of seven.

Within 10 years he was a part of the club’s Colts set-up that was earning rave reviews up and down the country.

“We were among the top three under-19 teams in the country,” said Holder, who was a key player for three years. “The Colts was the forerunner to the academies that every club has now but back in the day Roger Long and John Woodward were ahead of their time.

“Peter Buxton and Dan Vickerman played in the same side and we beat Leicester, Bath, Cardiff... it was a very enjoyable time.”

Holder moved on to Worcester under-21s where he was converted from a fly-half to a centre. He also had a few games for their 2nd XV in the two years he was there before the arrival of coaches Ian Smith and Don Caskie at Cheltenham tempted him back to his former club.

Holder thrived in their set-up and Caskie, a centre of some distinction for Gloucester in the late 1980s and early 1990s, never tired of telling anyone who would listen how good a player the young Holder was.

When they took up the coaching reins at Moseley it was little surprise that Holder followed them to the Midlands.

“They were very good for me,” said Holder. “I learned a lot from them.”

Holder gave them plenty too and was part of the Moseley side – alongside the likes of O’Leary, England 7s captain James Rodwell and ex-Cheltenham star Neil Bayliss – that clinched promotion to the Championship in the early noughties.

“That has to be one of the highlights of my career,” says Holder, who could play inside or outside centre although he preferred it at 13 – “I was quite quick and the physical demands weren’t quite so great,” he chuckled.

After three years at Moseley, Holder, who these days lives in Tewkesbury, was on the move again, this time to Lydney.

It was to be the start of a union that would last 11 years and Holder has nothing but happy memories playing for the Severnsiders.

“It was a great place to play rugby,” he said. “It was an old-fashioned ground and the club had a great support. It was one of the big reasons why I joined the club.

“I was also greatly honoured to join the 200 club. That was something I never really expected when I joined the club at 27 or 28.

“There are some great Lydney names in that club and I finished on 230 games for the club.”

Holder has fond memories of Lydney’s games against near neighbours Cinderford – “They were ding-dong battles and we’d get crowds of over 2,000 which was incredible for us players,” said Holder – but ask him to talk about his most memorable game in a Lydney shirt and he’ll say, “The one against Ealing.”

He explained: “It was six or seven years ago and we needed to beat them – I think they were second in the league – to stay up. We were fighting for our lives and we must have made about 100 tackles in the first half.

“It was real backs-to-the-wall stuff and it was one of the few games that I got yellow-carded. I took one for the team. They took a quick tap penalty, I hadn’t retreated 10 yards but they would almost certainly have scored if I hadn’t tackled their player.”

Holder’s pedigree performances right from the early days inevitably caught theo eye of Gloucestershire’s selectors both at age group and senior level.

He reached Twickenham twice – once with the county’s Colts and once with the senior team – and although he lost on both occasions they provided him with memories that will last forever.

“I scored a try in the final against Lancashire,” he said, “Jonny May was in the centre and I was I was on the wing. I remember he carried the ball an awful lot of yards that day.”

While Holder, who is married to Karen, may be stepping back from rugby, he will not be lost to the game.

He may still turn out for Lydney on occasions if they are really short and he is also very keen to develop his coaching.

He has been coaching the club’s backs for the past couple of seasons and will continue in that role this season.

He has also helped out with the under-11s and under-15s at Pate’s Grammar School under the watchful eye of Clive Stuart-Smith, where he has worked alongside Simon Dandy and Luke Stoneman, and he is set to help out at Sir Thomas Rich’s School next term.

“I really enjoy the coaching,” he said. “It’s great watching players develop, it’s very rewarding. Even the players who aren’t so talented can make a lot of progress. It’s great just to be involved.”

Rugby people all over Gloucestershire will be very pleased to hear that Chris Holder wants to stay involved with the great game. he has an awful lot to offer.