Iain Smith, who takes over as treasurer of Cheltenham Cricket Club in the new year, won’t need a guided tour of the Victoria Ground when he starts his new role.

That’s because the now 55-year-old lived in Kings Road, adjacent to the ground, when he was growing up and spent many a happy hour playing cricket at the club.

“I started playing for them when I was 10 and I played for them until I was 30,” Smith told The Local Answer.

And Smith was a good player too because he was part of the Cheltenham side which dominated the Western League in the late 80s and early 90s when they won three titles in four years.

The former Arle School pupil was a batsman and was awarded a two-year cricket scholarship to Millfield School.

“That was when I wanted to be a professional cricketer,” Smith said. “I was invited for trials with Somerset 2nds but I thought if I went there it would be disloyal to Gloucestershire, but Gloucestershire never asked me!”

So instead he worked as an accountant, which makes him eminently suitable for his new role at Cheltenham Cricket Club, of course.

He is replacing Pete Jubb who did the job for 30 years and who, like Smith, is a former Cheltenham cricketer.

Their careers overlapped, too, and Smith certainly has very fond memories of his time as a player at the club.

“I used to play every Saturday and Sunday for 15 years,” he said. “I didn’t have a summer holiday for 15 years!

“I’d be at the ground from 10 in the morning until 10 in the evening. It was great fun, it was just such a privilege to play there.

“It was a good ground, a good wicket and they were a lovely bunch of lads. Cricket is such a great team sport to be around.”

A succession of injuries to his left leg forced him to stop playing 25 years ago and apart from a few games for Chris White’s 3rd XI, he hasn’t been back to the club too often in the intervening years.

So when the club’s secretary John Hunt asked him if he’d like to take over as treasurer he thought it would be a chance to give something back to the club that gave him so much.

“Call it a guilty conscience if you like,” he laughed.

“I have been back on a few occasions and it will be good to be involved again.”

It will certainly bring the memories flooding back and there are plenty of them.

“I remember going to Lord’s for the 1978 cup final as a supporter,” he said. “I can still name all the players, I can even tell you the positions where they fielded!”

That day more than 44 years ago was one of the great days in Cheltenham’s long history, a day when they beat Bishop’s Stortford to be crowned National Club champions.

Mike Bailey, who went on to play for Hampshire, was in the Cheltenham side that day and he was the mastermind behind Cheltenham’s title wins a decade or so later.

“I was very lucky to play with the people I did,” said Smith. “People like Laurie Nicholls and Dave Waterston. I also played with Alistair Campbell and Grant Flower.”

And while cricket dominated his summers for many years, once September started he was very much into his rugby.

“I played for Cheltenham Colts and Cheltenham Under-21s,” said Smith, who lives in Brockworth.

“That was in the days when John Woodward and Clive Langston were in charge.

“I played with some good players – Paul Sargison, John Wood, John Morris. I was a fly-half, although a lot of my old team-mates will say I was a non-tackling fly-half! I tackled only if it was wet and the ground was soft!”

Injury forced him to retire at the age of 21 or 22.

He was due to make his 1^st XV debut in a midweek game but the match got called off. By then he’d got problems with his knees so he took the postponement as a sign it was the right time to stop playing.

For the past three or four years Smith has been treasurer of the Cheltenham Football League – the aforementioned John Hunt is the league’s fixtures secretary – and he is very much into his cycling.

“It’s probably my favourite sport,” he said. “I’ve not joined a club but I have thought about it. I keep myself reasonably fit, I love going out on my own for three or four hours, we’ve got such amazing countryside around here.”