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Cheltenham are so close to winning promotion to WEPL top flight

Cheltenham > Sport > Cricket

Author: Roger Jackson, Posted: Thursday, 30th August 2018, 09:40

Will Simmons Will Simmons

One more win. That’s all Cheltenham need to reclaim their place in the top flight of the West of England Premier League for the first time in 10 years.

Victory against Trowbridge at the Victoria Ground on Saturday will be enough to see off the challenge of Thornbury, earn them the Premier Two Glos/Wiltshire Division title and a place in Premier One in 2019 alongside the likes of Clevedon and Bath.

Sounds straightforward doesn’t it? But Cheltenham skipper Will Simmons knows there is plenty of work still to be done if they are to reach the Promised Land.

They’ve come so close in the past couple of years and now lead Thornbury by seven points – Thornbury are scheduled to host bottom-of-the-table Lechlade on Saturday – so it’s very definitely in their hands.

“We’re nearly there, we’re in exactly the right place,” said Simmons.

Indeed they are and Simmons is in no doubt that they deserve to make it third time lucky after finishing second in the last two seasons.

“We’ve played some really good cricket in the second half of this season,” said Simmons. “We’re the best team in the division and we deserve to be where we are.

“We lost three games in the first half of the season but we’ve learned the lesson from those defeats. Batting collapses were why we lost those games but we talked about it, changed the way we trained and it’s nice to see we’ve learned on the job.

“Everyone has been mentally very on it.”

Simmons admits that Cheltenham wouldn’t have been ready for promotion three years ago but last season was very tough to take when they were just pipped at the final hurdle.

“Last year was incredibly tight,” added Simmons, “and we ended up just on the wrong side of it. This year we have been in a bit more control.”

And while that’s true, nothing is yet guaranteed because the weather, for one, could yet play a part.

“That would be pretty tragic, that would be a cruel way to end the season,” admitted Simmons. “We just need to play and win.”

And while that would appear obvious it is all the more so because Thornbury’s opponents Lechlade failed to raise a side last Saturday for their fixture with Burbage.

If that happened again Thornbury would pick up the same points as the most successful team in the division accumulates on Saturday, up to a maximum of 25.

That’s just one more potential spanner in the works for Simmons who admits he is a “little bit nervous”.

After 10 years as captain – Simmons isn’t sure whether he’ll lead the side next season although he definitely intends to carry on playing – few would begrudge him a few nerves.

However, despite all the permutations, he’s confident of getting the job done on Saturday and help Cheltenham over the line.

“We owe it to ourselves,” he said.

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