St Stephens have forfeited their place in the County League less than a couple of months into the new season but the club have definitely not folded says club chairman James Spence, who has been playing for the club since 2000 and is determined to keep the name of St Stephens on the cricketing map.

The club first played way back in 1884 and Spence said with some pride: “We’re the oldest club in Cheltenham.”

However, this season has been difficult for the team who play in Division Six of the County League and play their home games at Swindon Village playing fields.

They’ve had to cancel two of their fixtures because of a lack of players and although they’ve played three matches they have taken the decision to withdraw from the County League.

The club run only the one team so it means they have no more fixtures this season but Spence remains hopeful that they could be playing again in 2019.

“We’d have to start again in one of the feeder leagues – the Cheltenham/Gloucester/Forest of Dean League,” said Spence.

“Another option is just to play friendlies on Sundays and midweek T20 friendlies.”

Spence also wouldn’t rule out merging with another club.

“That’s something that we’re open to,” he said. “If that happened we’d be open to playing at our ground or somewhere else’s although ideally we’d like to play at our ground.”

And what about the club’s name if a merger occurred?

“We’d definitely want the St Stephens name somewhere in any newly formed club,” admitted Spence. “Keeping the name is quite important for us even if we merge it with another name.”

Family commitments have curtailed the number of games dad-of-three Spence has been able to play in recent times.

He has played just one game this season but remains close to the club.

“If everyone is available we can pick from 17 players,” said Spence.

Some of those players have since gone to Woodmancote so that they can play some cricket this season.

Anyone who wants to get in contact Spence should email james.spence@sky.com