Pete Withey must have the best job in sport.

He’s captain of Commoners Cricket Club - cricket’s equivalent of the Barbarians team in rugby - where the game is played for fun with a capital ‘F’.

Withey is about halfway through his three-year tenure as skipper - every captain at the club takes on the role for three seasons - and the 57-year-old’s take on life at the not so sharp end typifies the philosophy of the club.

“At no point did I ever think I was captaincy material but that hasn’t stopped me doing the job,” he laughed. “I’m enjoying it. We’re still having a lot of fun playing social cricket against a variety of teams around the region.”

So, what type of captain is he?

“I’m very laid back,” he said, still laughing. “I’m not ruthless enough and I’m not a master tactician. We play cricket so that everyone gets to bat or bowl although we do try to win.”

Typically, Withey is equally dismissive of his ability as a player.

“I used to play for Woodchester in my 20s,” he said. “Then I stopped playing for a long time and it wasn’t until Ron Birch, who played for the Commoners for many years, came into my shop that I got involved again.

“He wanted some scorecards photocopied and I said to him that if he was ever short of players to give me a ring.

“Two days later he gave me a call. That was 15 years ago and now I’m captain. I still don’t know how it happened!

“I’m rubbish at everything! My batting average is usually single figures and my bowling’s no better.

“I opened the batting the other day in a 20/20 and it took me 15 overs to make 25. We lost the game!”

Behind all the laughs, however, is a club that has been one of the success stories in Gloucestershire over the past three decades on and off the pitch.

Formed in 1990 and based in Nympsfield, little more than a very sweetly timed cover drive from Forest Green Rovers Football Club, the club has gone from strength to strength and boasts what must be one of the busiest fixture lists in the county for a club of its size with 40-over matches on Sundays and 20/20 games in midweek.

Withey is proud of what the club has achieved.

“We’ve got a really good pitch these days,” he says, “and that’s all down to the hard work of Don Luke and Dean Evans. Three seasons ago we moved the wicket half a pitch length further away from the houses at the pavilion end.

“A lot of time and effort has gone into the pitch. We’ve invested in a roller and other equipment and it’s so nice when you hear other teams saying what a good wicket it is.”

It’s not just the pitch that has been improved.

“We’ve upgraded the showers,” said Withey proudly. “We were also decorating the changing rooms in the closed season. The club exists around the families of the Goddens, the Cramptons and the Colvins but we all muck in.”

One of the highlights of the club’s season is their summer tour - a three-day trip that usually takes place in June. In the past it’s taken them to Tenby, Bude, Eastbourne and Portland Bill among many other locations.

Withey’s most memorable tour, however, took them further afield to Dordogne in south France four years ago.

“Yes, we all got there,” he laughed. “The trouble was that it was the wettest it had been over there for 100 years. We caught the train to Paris, stayed there for a night and got very drunk before getting up early the following morning to catch the TGV down to Bordeaux.

“From there we got a minibus to the ground where the rain was sheeting down.

“We’d arranged to play two matches against the same team over two days - a 20/20 match and a 40-over match - but something must have got lost in translation because almost as soon as we got there their captain asked us who we were playing the following day!

“In the end they did play us on both days even though the weather was horrible. We’ve got pictures of us playing in Cagoules with the hoods tied round our necks. We still had great fun though.”

Another fun day in the Commoners’ calendar is the annual eight-a-side tournament which this year takes place on Sunday 20th August.

Four teams - including the Commoners - take part in a festival of local cricket that starts at 11am, goes on until about 7pm and has been name-checked in the past by the BBC’s Test Match Special team.

The Commoners are defending their title this year and would like to win it again.

Yes, they play cricket with smiles on their faces, but their grins are just that little bit wider if they win!