Keith Knight may have turned 50 earlier this year but he still knows how to score a hundred.

He made exactly 100 against Chipping Campden at the start of the month – he also took 5-28 in the same game– as Shurdington edged to a thrilling four-run Gloucestershire League Division Two victory after setting the visitors a target of 206 to win.

That win has helped Shurdington into the top four in the 10-strong table after six rounds of the campaign – one of three teams, along with Aston Ingham and Westbury-on-Severn, on 96 points who are three points adrift of leaders Cam.

And unbeaten Cam are the visitors to Shurdington on Saturday for a game that, weather permitting, has a real early-season top-of-the-table feel to it.

Knight, of course, has been involved in a good number of those over the years.

The one-time Cheltenham Town footballer has captained Shurdington “on and off for the past 20 years” and although pleased with the club’s start to the season is refusing to get carried away.

“We’ve started off okay,” he said, “but our ambition is just to stay at this level. It’s getting more and more competitive every season and over the next few seasons it’s going to get even tougher.

“Our aim is just to finish in the top half of the table even though when everyone is available we’re a match for anyone in the division.”

And it’s not just the 1st XI who are going well this year because the club’s 2nd XI are currently second in Division Two East of the Cheltenham/Gloucester/Forest of Dean League.

That’s something that obviously delights Knight who added: “We’ve got plenty of bodies at the moment. We’re not scraping around for players on a Friday night, it’s all flourishing nicely.

“We refurbished the clubhouse a couple of years ago, made it a lot more social, but it is getting harder and harder for parochial village clubs to keep going because the ‘super clubs’ take many of the young players.”

Shurdington have a junior cricket night on Fridays and Knight is proud of the fact that nearly all the 1st XI live in the village and came through their youth set-up.

Along with Knight they boast a couple of very well-known names who have been playing cricket for many years – opening batsman Clive Thornton and opening bowler Merv Martin, although Martin doesn’t play in the flagship side every week these days.

They’ve also got a good number of younger players coming through, including Knight’s sons Ollie and Tom, while Knight’s youngest son Charlie, a 17-year-old leg-spinner who bats in the middle order, is a regular in the 2nd XI and also gets a couple of games in the 1st XI.

“They’re all as competitive as me,” said Knight with some pride.

And while Knight, who still bowls seam up, says he is very happy with the level the club are playing at, those competitive juices mean that if the chance to go up does come along come season’s end it’s something he’d try to grab with both hands.

“Of course,” he said, “the younger players want to play at the highest level they can.”

Whatever level the club are playing in 2020 it seems certain that Knight will still be the man calling heads or tails before the start of a game.

“I was captain for 10 years, then had a few years off and have been captain for the last three or four,” he said, adding with a laugh, “nobody else will do it. Somebody will have to step into the breach at some stage but at the moment if they keep voting me in, I will keep doing it.”

It’s clear Knight is still thoroughly enjoying cricket and he certainly has no plans to pack up any time soon.

In fact he is playing even more than before because he has just started playing for Gloucestershire’s over-50s.

“I’ll keep going for as long as the body holds together,” he said.