The red carpet is rolled out regularly in London and other great cities around the world as a welcome for heads of state, VIPs and celebrities at formal events.

There is no red carpet at Slaughters United Cricket Club but instead a wonderful green carpet which makes it one of the most stunning grounds in Gloucestershire.

And while their carpet is green and not red, the club that play in the heart of the Cotswolds have certainly had their brushes with celebrity in recent years.

For a start they are sponsored by Coldplay – yep, the multi award-winning band who have had more hits than many batsmen manage in a season.

So while many teams have the name of a brewery or maybe an insurance company emblazoned on their shirts – and there’s nothing wrong with that of course – Slaughters United play with the name of one of the world’s biggest bands adorning their shirts.

That’s pretty cool so how did it happen?

“Through Guy Berryman, who is the band’s bass player,” said Slaughters’ experienced wicketkeeper Paul Heming. “He lives close by and I’d heard he was sponsoring one of the junior teams at Stow Rugby Club.

“So I asked him if he’d sponsor us and he said ‘yes’.”

That was some eight years ago and since then the club have also been touched by cricketing ‘royalty’.

“We won a competition for our teas,” explained Heming. “It was run by Yorkshire Tea and our teas were rated the best in the country by the judges.

“We got a brand new £10,000 kitchen as a prize and we also got to play a 20-overs match against a PCA Masters XI, a team from the Professional Cricketers’ Association who were made up of former international players.

“Neil Fairbrother was the captain and some of the other players included Andy Caddick, Owais Shah, Alex Tudor, Paul Nixon and Simon Jones. Jones bowled off a couple of paces but was still quite sharp.”

Those ex-England stars were all well past their best when they rocked up at Lower Slaughter three years ago, of course, and looking ahead to the new campaign, Heming believes this year will be a transitional one for Slaughters United.

“We’ve got a few players who are getting older and are retiring,” said the 44-year-old. “It’s fair to say that I’m in the twilight of my career.”

Slaughters run two Saturday senior teams with the flagship side playing in Division Three of the County League.

“The aim is to get two teams out every week and just to enjoy playing cricket,” said Heming, who added that the club have also got three junior teams.

And while enjoying their cricket is clearly the aim of the game, there are still some pretty decent cricketers at a club captained by Nic Hayward.

Hayward is also the club’s chairman and Heming said: “He’s still a very good bowler. He used to be quick but now he’s medium pace.

“Andrew Phillips is our best batsman and he opens the batting. Then there’s Nic’s two boys, Theo and Angus. They are predominantly batsmen but they bowl a bit.”

Theo and Angus are the future of the club, of course. And while the club have enjoyed a rich recent past, they clearly have plenty to look forward to in the years to come as well.