Old Centralians chairman Stan Fritchley is preparing himself for a nailbiting end to the season for more reasons than one.

Despite their 31-12 defeat at runaway leaders Newbury Blues a couple of weeks ago Old Centralians are still in pole position to claim the runners up-spot in South West One East.

That would earn them a play-off place against the second team in South West One West with the winners of that game earning promotion to South West Premier.

With four games left to play Old Centralians hold a four-point advantage over third-placed Banbury and they play the first of those four games tomorrow at home to lowly Witney.

And while Fritchley says the club will be “going all out to win every game” he also admitted that promotion, should it happen, would be something of a “poisoned challenge”.

Old Centralians have played at the higher level in recent seasons and Fritchley knows how tough it is.

“We want to go up but it will put huge pressure on the players,” he said. “If we go up we’ll have to play teams in Devon and Cornwall, it makes it a very long day.

“At the moment our longest journey is two hours.”

And it’s not just the extra travelling because there are some big teams in South West Premier as well such as Barnstaple, Brixham and Exmouth.

“They are one-club towns,” continued Fritchley. “They have first call on all the players in their town, in Gloucester we’ve got 12 clubs.

“You only have to look at Old Patesians, they were the best team in our division last season but they’ve really struggled in South West Premier.”

It’s by no means certain, of course, that Old Centralians will win promotion even though three of their four remaining games are at home.

Fritchley believes Banbury have the slightly easier run-in, but if Old Centralians hold off their challenge they are likely to go into the play-off game as the underdogs.

Okehampton or Launceston are almost certain to occupy the top two places in South West One West this season – although Newent may still have something to say about that – with Okehampton, who have 90 points, currently holding a three-point advantage over Launceston.

Home advantage in the play-off game goes to the second-placed team with the most points – Old Centralians are currently on 82 – and Fritchley added: “It looks like we’ll be travelling to either Okehampton or Launceston if we finish runners-up.”

In terms of mileage, Okehampton would be the preferable trip – that’s just over 130 miles from Gloucester while Launceston is a shade above 150.

Ask Fritchley whether he’d prefer promotion or victory in this season’s North Gloucestershire Combination Senior Cup – a trophy Old Centralians hold – and he’ll said: “The North Gloucestershire Combination Senior Cup, that’s our local competition.”

It’s a cup in which they’ve done well in recent times and this year they face a first-round trip to Gloucestershire Premier pacesetters Spartans on Monday 1st April.

Old Centralians’ final three South West One East games are at home to Oxford Harlequins (30th March) away to Royal Wootton Bassett (6th April) and at home to Salisbury (13th April).

Banbury’s final four games are away to Swindon (tomorrow), at home to Trowbridge (30th March), away to Wimborne (6th April) and at home to Witney (13th April).

Meanwhile, Fritchley, who is president of the North Gloucestershire Combination, confirmed that the Combination’s finals day will be at Kingsholm on Sunday 12th May.