Will Naish has packed an awful lot into his cricketing life.

Still only 22, the one-time Gloucestershire rookie player is preparing to captain Frocester in the top tier in the West of England Premier League for a fourth season.

He actually took over as skipper from Uzi Qureshi midway through the 2022 campaign when he was still a sixth-former at Clifton College and made an immediate impact as he steered the club to the Premier 2 Glos/Wilts title.

Since then they have finished fifth, eighth and eighth in the 10-team Premier One.

Two seasons ago they won three of their last four games to avoid relegation on a dramatic final day, but although their final position was the same in 2025, the campaign was a lot more comfortable.

They finished 37 points clear of the bottom two, the same number that they trailed third-placed Bath.

But while that was an improvement, Naish, who first played 1^st XI cricket for the club as a 13-year-old, is ambitious and believes there is a lot more to come from the side.

“I think we’ve under-performed over the past couple of seasons,” he admitted. “I want us to be putting in improved performances and challenging the top half of the table.”

And Naish, an all-rounder who bats in the top order and bowls right-arm medium-fast, is clear where those improvements need to be made.

“Application at the crease and scoring runs,” he said. “We got into winning positions quite a few times last season and failed to win.

“I can think of three games where we bowled the opposition out for under 200 and still lost. We need to have the craft to win those games.”

Naish is hoping that those disappointments – they won seven and lost nine of their league games in 2025 – can help push the club forward in the upcoming campaign.

“We’re a young side, our average age is under 23,” he said. “But the younger players have had two years of playing Premier One cricket so they are a bit more experienced, it could be really exciting.”

Former Wycliffe College pupil Naish will bat at four or five this season and will be a key player alongside wicketkeeper/batsman Luke Woolway, who has joined the club from Painswick.

Woolway, who will also take on some coaching duties, has scored a stack of runs for Painswick in recent seasons in Premier 2 Glos/Wilts.

“We’ve been trying to get him for a while,” said Naish. “I think he wants to test himself at Premier One level.”

Meanwhile, young Oscar Moore, a pupil at Cheltenham College, will share the new ball with the experienced Wimma Perera, a combination that excites Naish.

Perera has played at the top level in Sri Lanka, while 18-year-old Moore, who has played for Gloucestershire’s 2nds, is someone who clearly has a bright future.

Naish, a school teacher at Cheltenham College who coaches the 1^st XI, knows plenty about him and said: “He took five wickets for us twice last season.”

Gloucestershire all-rounder Ed Middleton will again provide support with his leg-spin and Naish is a big fan of the 25-year-old.

“He’s class, a typical good club pro, always available to help out when he can,” he said. “He’s brilliant for our younger players, he sets the right example.

“Last season he travelled all the way down from Northampton to play a game for us.”

That reflects well on the club, too, a club of that have been crowned West of England champions three times over the years, most recently in 2015.

“It’s a lovely club,” said Naish. “We’re not in the middle of town like Bristol, Bedminster and Bath, we’re in the middle of nowhere. We have to recruit really well.”

They’ve certainly been doing that over the years and Naish is excited for the new season.

“We’ve been doing pre-season training every week at Sir Thomas Rich’s School since January. The mood in the camp is good,” Naish said.

Naish helps to set that mood in his role as captain and he continued: “It doesn’t get any easier but I absolutely love it. I live and breathe the game, it’s perfect for me.

“I study captaincy. I’m big on positivity and believing in ourselves, but I also want everyone to enjoy their cricket.”

Frocester begin their league campaign at home to Potterne on Saturday 2^nd May.