Cheltenham Civil Service Cricket Club start pre-season training in February and new skipper Craig Baker can’t wait for the 2019 campaign to start.

The 28-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman takes over as captain from his brother Robbie – two years his junior – who was in charge for two seasons.

And it’s a role with which Craig is familiar because he was originally captain from 2013 to 2016 and in his first season in charge they won promotion to the Gloucestershire Division of the West of England Premier League.

That’s a very good standard of cricket of course and it sees them rubbing shoulders with the likes of Hatherley and Reddings, Gloucester City Winget and Tewkesbury as well as Cheltenham 2nds and Frocester 2nds.

In some ways Cheltenham Civil Service are the unsung heroes when it comes to cricket in the town – most cricket players and supporters know about Cheltenham and Hatherley and Reddings but maybe not so many are aware of the achievements of Cheltenham Civil Service.

And to be preparing to embark on their sixth season in the West of England Premier League – in the same division that Hatherley play – is some achievement.

“We’re punching well above our weight but we’re competitive,” said Baker.

“The division is much more competitive now than it was when we were promoted. In our first two seasons we challenged for promotion but the last two years have been a bit more of a struggle.”

The club finished eighth in the 10-strong division in 2018 but Baker is hoping for better this time around.

They finished just 13 points behind fourth-placed Hatherley and he said: “The aim is to finish in the top half of the table. I suppose the primary aim is to stay in the division but with a couple of new faces I can’t see why we can’t challenge for the top half. If we had won a couple of close games that we lost last season we’d have ended in the top four.

“In years to come I can’t see why we can’t go higher. The general make-up of the 1st XI is young – most of the players are in their 20s.”

As well as a strong flagship team the club also run two other Saturday teams, a Sunday side, a midweek side and teams at under-13 and under-15 age groups.

That’s all very impressive, of course, and equally impressive is the set-up at Cheltenham Civil Service who play their home games off Tewkesbury Road.

“We’re very lucky with our facilities,” continued Baker, “they’re first class. We owe a big debt of gratitude to our groundsman Martin Saunders for all the work he puts in. Our pitch was rated second in the division last season.”

And like all good cricket wickets, they allow batsmen to play their shots while also offering enough to interest the better bowlers.

“There’s life in it early on for the seamers,” added Baker. “But if you get in there are runs to be had. I’d say an average first innings score is 200-plus.”

And if Service get to around that mark it’s a fair bet that Adrian Mayes will be among the runs.

“He’s our rock at the top of the order,” said Baker.

And there are others who are key players too.

“George Leadbetter is normally our star with bat and ball,” continued Baker. “He bowls left-arm spin.

“And William Fell took about 30 wickets last season and was our player of the year last year. He bowls right-arm medium fast and came through our youth system.”

Baker and his brother Robbie, meanwhile, came through the youth system at Hatherley although they started out in Service’s adult Sunday side at the ages of nine or 10.

No surprise there when you consider that their dad is Eddie Baker who used to break Service run-scoring records for fun back in the day.

Eddie is now a West of England Premier League umpire and Craig, an ex-Balcarras School pupil, laughed: “To be fair we probably didn’t have much choice about playing cricket!

“Our uncle Gerald also played and he’s still playing for our 3rd XI.”

The Baker boys, meanwhile, are likely to be fixtures in the 1st XI for a good few years yet. Robbie tends to bat one place above his brother at five so obviously they tend to spend a fair bit of time together out in the middle.

So how do they get on?

“He ran me out in the indoor cricket league on Saturday,” laughed Craig. “That’s 3-0 now!

“To be fair to Robbie, he’s a much more talented batsman than me. I tend to apply myself while he’s a flair batsman, he likes to play big shots.

“He’s flamboyant so our styles complement each other. We’re certainly not as competitive with each other as people may think, we both want the other to do well.”

And the club have certainly been doing well in the Cheltenham Indoor League this winter.

“We’ve got an A and B team in Division One and a 3rd team in Division Three,” said Baker.

“The A team have just won the Gloucestershire round and will represent the county in the national round which is the last 32. We play a team from Somerset in February.”

Indoors or outdoors, Cheltenham Civil Service are clearly a club on the up and Baker is particularly pleased that they have recently attained Clubmark status.

“That’s official accreditation from the ECB that we’re a well run club,” said Baker.

The club’s pre-season indoor nets will be held at Leisure at Cheltenham and anyone who wishes to join the club should call Craig Baker on 07837 344702 or email him at crogins@hotmail.co.uk