Gareth Roderick is coming ‘home’ to play for Cheltenham, the club that helped catapult him into the full-time game.

The Gloucestershire wicketkeeper/batsman will play “four or five” games this season for the club with whom he enjoyed such great success back in 2012.

And the 26-year-old, who was at a Cheltenham Cricket Club awards night on Thursday evening, says he is really looking forward to being part of a team that will hopefully gain promotion to West of England League Premier One after a couple of very near misses.

“I’ve signed to play for them,” he said. “I’ll play when Gloucestershire’s fixtures allow and when training allows. Gloucestershire obviously come first but there should be four or five weekends when I’m available.

“I’m looking forward to playing with some old friends and hopefully helping to get Cheltenham promoted.”

Durban-born Roderick was just 20 when he first played for Cheltenham – he lived just a big six-hit from the Victoria Ground during his time with the club.

He had spent the previous two seasons playing league cricket in Northamptonshire after coming to this country in 2010, but it was when he headed to glorious Gloucestershire – and specifically Cheltenham – that things really started to kick-on.

Mind you, his first game for Cheltenham didn’t exactly go to plan.

“I think I was out first ball,” he laughed. “I hit a legside half-volley straight to square leg. I think the other players were thinking, ‘Who have we signed here?’”

They didn’t have long to find out because the runs soon started to flow from the Roderick bat.

“I think I got a century in my second game and I never looked back,” he said. “I scored 1,300 runs and we won the league title with three or four games to spare.

“I loved it at Cheltenham and whenever I get the chance I tell people what a great club they are.”

Cheltenham loved having him as well as they raced to the Glos/Wilts title that year.

“They were happy days,” continued Roderick. “I walked into a changing room full of great people and a club full of great people. I will be forever grateful to them, they were instrumental in getting me going.”

They certainly were. By the end of 2012 Roderick, who made his first-class debut for KwaZulu-Natal in his native South Africa in 2011, had signed a two-year contract with Gloucestershire and the rest as they say is history.

He established himself pretty much straightaway in the county side and was in the team that won the Royal London One-Day Cup final at Lord’s in 2015.

In 2016 Roderick, a British passport holder through his mum, took on the captaincy of the county championship team, and though injuries have slowed his progress in recent times he remains one of the major players at the club.

And when he returns to Cheltenham this season, he’ll certainly be welcomed with open arms.

Player/coach Luke Sellers said: “It’s fantastic news that Gareth is going to play a few games for us this season. Everyone at the club is very proud of what he has achieved at Gloucestershire.”