Cam Cricket Club run four Saturday men’s teams, a Sunday side, multiple youth teams for boys and girls and a ladies’ team.

That’s a pretty impressive number of teams and it hasn’t just happened by accident.

“Yes, we’ve got a lot of players,” said vice-chairman Dave Cotterell, “but we’ve had to work hard to get to where we are.”

Indeed they have. Cotterell can remember running an under-17 side in the mid-70s when the phrase “youth cricket” was about as common as an Aussie fast bowler saying “well played” to an England batsman in the heat of an Ashes battle.

And the club also established their ladies’ team some 25 years ago, long, long before many others had even considered it.

“I remember that under-17 team.” said Cotterell, 65, who still turns out for the club’s 3rds and 4ths. “It was in 1973/74 and I’d have been about 22 or 23.”

It’s fair to say that Cam were ahead of the game in many ways and Cotterell said with some pride: “Nearly all our players are homegrown. If you look at our senior teams today, nine or 10 of the players in each team either live in the area or have come through the youth system.”

Cotterell himself is very much a local. Born and bred in Cam, this season will his 50th year playing for the club.

“I’ve captained all the teams at some point,” he said. “I captained the 1st XI twice and I also captained the 2nds.

“Ian Dixon and myself resurrected the 3rd XI so that we could start getting the youngsters involved and then we started the 4ths.”

Dixon no longer lives in the area but he used to be headmaster of Cam Everlands Primary School and was, says Cotterell, a “cricket fanatic”.

Cotterell worked closely with Dixon to get the youth set-up established at Cam along with current chairman Steve Ballard, who like Cotterell, is an ex-chairman of the youth section.

Simon and Janet Lane are two others Cotterell is keen to namecheck when discussing the people who do an awful lot for the club.

There are others too. “We are indebted to our groundsman Steve Rice,” Cotterell added. “It would be very difficult to accommodate all the games we play without him.

“Brian Tocknell is a very active president. He’s a famous old player who played for Cam all his cricketing life and was a hugely successful local cricketer.

“And Alison Dixon has done an awful lot for the ladies’ team and is a former captain.”

And another who has done an awful lot for the club over the years is Cotterell’s wife Judith.

“She’s been enormously supportive,” said her husband. “She played for a long time and is now on the ladies’ committee.”

It’s safe to say that both Mr and Mrs Cotterell will be spending plenty of time at Cam Sports Club, where the club play their home games, this summer.

Mr Cotterell will have a keen eye on the men’s flagship team, of course, captained by Adam Holloway and this season playing in Division One of the Gloucestershire County League after last season’s promotion.

“We did it comfortably,” said Cotterell. “We’ve got a lot of younger players so hopefully we should continue improving.

“And we want to keep the 2nds in the County League structure. They’re playing in Division Seven and we want our young players to play at as high a level as possible.”

Clearly the club have one eye on the present but also one very much on the future and the good news for generations to come is that this season the club are part of the All Stars programme, which is designed to introduce youngsters from the ages of five to eight to the wonderful game of cricket.

The future is indeed very bright at Cam Cricket Club.