Cheltenham Saracens have pulled out of this season’s Cheltenham Combination Senior Cup.

The Gloucester Premier club, deducted 25 points last week for fielding an ineligible player under a different name, have decided that preserving their current place in the league pyramid must take priority after suddenly finding themselves plunged into a relegation battle.

“It was a very difficult decision,” admitted Saracens chairman Jimmy O’Shea. “We’ve done really well in the Combination cups over the past three or four seasons and are the current holders of both the Senior and Junior cups.”

Saracens were due to play Smiths in the first round of this season’s Senior Cup on Wednesday, and their decision to withdraw their 1st XV was made all the tougher because they are hosting finals day on Saturday 28th April.

“Yes, it would have been nice to be playing on finals day at our own ground,” admitted O’Shea, “but we sat down as a committee and then discussed it with the players.

“If the players had wanted to play in the cup then I think we would have done, but they agreed that the league has to take priority.

“It’s a great league. It’s a very good standard and the teams are very even. All the games are hard, which the players really enjoy.”

Now Saracens face a real battle to stay out of Gloucester One after sliding down the table following the points deduction.

They responded well on Saturday, beating Hucclecote 27-10 at home, but despite that result only Cirencester, who are well adrift, are currently beneath them in the table.

The bottom two will definitely go down and it could be that the team who finish third from bottom are also relegated as well, depending on which teams are relegated in the divisions above.

Saracens, who would have been fourth in normal circumstances, find themselves three points adrift of the team immediately above them, St Mary’s Old Boys, and 11 points behind Gloucester Old Boys who are one place ahead of St Mary’s. All three teams have four games remaining.

“We’ve got to try and win all of our remaining games,” admitted O’Shea. “The players responded really well on Saturday and it was a case of one down, four to go.

“Fingers crossed, we’ll stay up but we’ve got to take each game as it comes. It’s going to be a very hard four weeks.”

Two of Saracens’ four games are against Gloucester OBs and St Mary’s OBs, with Saracens hosting Gloucester OBs on Saturday and travelling to St Mary’s on 21st April, the final day of the season.

In between those games they travel to fifth-placed Longlevens on 7th April and host third-placed Spartans a week later.

O’Shea, meanwhile, has confirmed that the club won’t be lodging an appeal against the points deduction.

“It was one of those mistakes,” he said. “We’re not blaming anyone, we’ve just got to take it on the chin.”