Painswick have been turning up the power for the past few seasons.

The go-ahead cricket club have established themselves as one of the strongest in the area and they are looking to carry that momentum into 2025.

And the signs are certainly encouraging because the West of England Premier League club, who play in Premier 2 Glos/Wilts, will be able to call on the services of former Gloucestershire all-rounder Benny Howell for around half of their league games in the upcoming campaign.

Howell is now 36 but he remains a seriously good cricketer. These days he is a white-ball specialist, something that allows him to play franchise cricket all around the world.

He is also in demand closer to home, having been retained by Birmingham Phoenix for The Hundred while he is also part of Hampshire’s T20 Blast squad.

“He absolutely loves cricket,” said Painswick senior club coach Luke Woolway. “He comes with so much experience and the younger players will be able to learn a lot from him.

“He’s a real team player, he says he’s happy to play whatever role the club want him to perform.”

Howell was part of the Gloucestershire side that won the Royal London One-Day Cup at Lord’s back in 2015 in the days when it was still a frontline competition, and over the years he has made his name as a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, while as a bowler he has been described as a mystery seamer, slower-ball specialist and a fast spinner.

“He thinks cricket outside the box,” continued Woolway. “He’s always trying to discover new things. He’s always asking questions, he’s still willing to learn.”

Howell, who lives in Bristol, has been training at 22 Yards Cricket Centre in Gloucester, which Woolway set up along with Painswick team-mate Reece Morris.

“That’s where it started,” explained Woolway, a teacher at Denmark Road High School in Gloucester. “Reece and Benny are good mates.

“Our overseas player Keegan Jansen Van Rensburg has gone back to South Africa so signing Benny is perfect.”

And Howell, who played for Goatacre in the 10-team Premier 2 Glos/Wilts last season, is joining an upwardly mobile club who have established themselves in the division after finishing fifth last season above the likes of Cheltenham and Hatherley and Reddings.

“Our ambition is to play Premier One cricket, whether it be next season or in two or three years,” said 26-year-old Woolway, a wicketkeeper who bats at four.

“We need to make a good start, for the first half of the season we want to be in the promotion picture.”

Only one team will go up and Woolway continued: “We want to play at the highest standard we can but if we finish in the top four we’ll be really happy, that’s our main aim.

“We’re not going to be silly and say we don’t want to win the league, every team wants that. We want to be the best club in the area but it’s a really tough division, everyone can beat everyone, any team can win promotion, any team can be relegated.”

Painswick, who will again be captained by Jack Hobbis, have come a long way in a relatively short time.

They were playing in the Gloucestershire County League as recently as 2018 and Woolway said: “As a committee we always say we mustn’t forget how far we’ve come.”

But they want more, of course, and would certainly like to make an impression in the WEPL T20, the National Village Knockout and the County Cup this season.

The National Village Knockout is a competition that is particularly appealing – the final is played at Lord’s – and Painswick would love to go further than last season when they reached the last eight before losing out narrowly to Cornish side Grampound Road.

But while the club’s flagship team have big ambitions, Woolway is keen to stress that the club as a whole have big ambitions.

“We’re trying to build the club, our junior section is growing all the time,” said Woolway, a South African who these days lives in Gloucester.

“There are a lot of volunteers who don’t always get the credit they deserve, we are a community club.”

The club are also very pleased with the development of their ladies’ team, a team Woolway coaches and one that includes his girlfriend Lucy Walton and sister Kate Woolway.

They were the top two batters last season – Lucy was the leading runscorer by 10 runs – and the success of the women’s and girls’ section is a big part of the club going forward.

“We’re creating a culture where people play for Painswick because they want to play for the club,” said Woolway, who says he is “Painswick through and through”.

That culture is typified by George MacDuff, who plays for the club’s flagship men’s team.

“He’s a teacher in London but his parents live in Painswick and he comes back to play at weekends,” said Woolway.

“He’s a real unsung hero, a real team man.

“He says the right things at the right time, win or lose. He does a lot for the team.”

Painswick begin their Premier 2 Wilts/Glos campaign at promoted Tewkesbury on Saturday 3^rd May.