There are few better people qualified to talk about Old Centralians Rugby Club than Malcolm Price.

The current vice-chairman first pulled on the club’s shirt 50 years ago and he has been closely associated with them ever since.

And Price, who is 66 this year, can remember that first game like it was yesterday.

“It was a third team game down at St Mary’s Old Boys and we won,” he said.

Price had only just turned 16 and was still at Central Technical School for Boys in Gloucester.

“Tony Smith who went to the same school also played in that game and he still comes up to the club,” added Price.

“All of the school’s 1st XV from around that time joined Old Cents. Most of them moved on but there is still a hardcore six or seven of us involved.”

Price, who played his last game at the age of 50, started his rugby life as a scrum-half but was versatile enough to play anywhere along the backs. His main position was in the centre and he played for all of the club’s teams in the days when it wasn’t uncommon for the club to field five sides on any given Saturday.

This season the South West One East club are planning to field two teams – and hopefully three because they’ve appointed Roddy Crease as third team captain.

The flagship team will be led by Sam Preece, who is the cousin head coach Jack Preece, while the second team will be captained by Rob Pinkney

The players returned to pre-season in early July in good heart after last season’s North Gloucestershire Combination Senior Cup final success at Kingsholm.

Their win over Coney Hill made it three in a row and they will certainly be looking to make it a fab four come the end of 2018/19.

A top three finish in the league would also be good with Price saying: “That’s the aim and anything after that is a bonus.”

Old Centralians finished last season in seventh place, some 48 points adrift of champions Old Patesians.

But although they won only 13 of their 26 league games – they drew another – there were some encouraging performances from some of their new faces.

“Number eight Tim Wilcox joined from Dursley and he was our player of the season,” said Price. “Jack Rowe also joined us from Dursley and he did really well.

“We also had a couple of young lads from St Peter’s – George Bromage and Sol Farrer – and they both played for the first team.”

It wasn’t so long ago that Cents were playing in what is now South West Premier and although Price would love to see them back at that level, he is also very happy with the division they are playing in.

“It’s a good league,” he said. “We like to play rugby with a smile on our faces, we play open running rugby and fortunately there are quite a lot of sides in the division who play running rugby as well.”

Anyone who would like to join the Cents should email Price at malc63price@gmail.com