While many people are turning their thoughts to the festive season, the players at Whitminster Cricket Club still have a warm glow as they reflect on another season – the summer season just past.

That’s because it truly was a remarkable campaign for the club that can be found just six miles outside Stroud.

The 1st XI, under the captaincy of Lewis Cook, stormed to the Stroud and District Cricket Association Premier Division title and will play in Division Seven of the County League next season.

And it was some season because they went through the campaign undefeated with a record-breaking tally of 363 points across 18 matches.

And as you’d expect with a playing record such as that, there were some pretty impressive individual performances as well.

Seamer Pars Ghadialli won the Stroud League’s bowling award – he took 33 wickets – while Ross Wakely was the leading runscorer with 725.

That included his outstanding unbeaten 172 against Chalford 2nds on 16th June, when he shared a club and league record unbroken opening partnership for the club and the Stroud League with his skipper of 314. Captain Cook weighed in with 101.

The club’s 2nd XI also enjoyed a very successful season, finishing runners-up in Stroud League Division One and winning promotion to the Premier Division after winning 11 and losing six of their matches.

Three batsmen topped 200 runs for the season – Alex Dawber (261), Brian Haddock (248) and Karl Jefferies (227) – while on the bowling front there was great delight when 13-year-old seamer Jake Clack took five wickets in adult cricket for the first time when playing against Hawkesbury Upton on June 2nd.

But while the summer season may have finished some three months ago, don’t for one moment think that the players at Whitminster are just sitting back and taking it easy.

That’s because cricket at Whitminster truly is an all-the-year round sport, because in the winter the club have two teams playing in the Cheltenham Indoor League.

At the time of writing they are doing pretty well in that competition too, where they have teams in Division Two and Division Four.

And while the cricket is clearly very good, the social side at the club is very good too. They organise tours in April and September, host an 8-a-side cricket competition and organise quiz nights and race nights.

The club also have two Gloucestershire Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers (GACUS) qualified umpires, while pre-season nets for the 2019 season will begin around March/April time.

“We are committed to establishing links to the local community and are seeking volunteers to join us as club scorers and club umpires,” said club chairman Jim Hyland.

“In both cases an understanding of cricket would be needed but full in-house and GACUS training would be provided at no cost.”

And that’s not all.

“We are also committed to establishing youth cricket at the club, and to this end we will start running the ECB’s All Stars cricket programme in 2019 for under-9s,” added Hyland.

New members – both playing and non-playing – are welcome, contact club chairman Jim Hyland on 07721 005973 or at jimhyland1@gmail.com