Minchinhampton are in good spirits as they prepare for the visit of Gloucester 2nds on Saturday.

Two wins outs of two have catapulted them into joint top spot with Cheltenham 2nds in Division Five of the County League and Chairman Mike Waring said: “It’s been a good start.”

It certainly has because they beat Sheepscombe by five wickets on the opening day of the campaign and followed up by winning by 42 runs at Charlton Kings 2nds last weekend.

And although opener Jon Ablett scored an unbeaten 68 in the win over Sheepscombe both those performances have been real team efforts with a good number of players performing crucial roles.

“It’s an interesting division,” said Waring, who is also the club’s groundsman and barman. “There are a number of 2nd XIs of quite strong clubs playing so you never quite know who you are going to be up against. It’s a bit of an unknown.”

The next few games will reveal a lot more of course but Waring is cautiously optimistic as he looks forward to the rest of the season.

“We’ve kicked off well,” he continued. “The boys played in the Cheltenham Indoor League in the winter which was quite useful.

“It kept them together and they did very well in it.

“But there are a lot of things to consider like the vagaries of unavailabilities and injuries. From one week to another you can have a completely different team.”

Opening bowler Matthew Hole is in his second season as captain and Waring added: “He’s one of the youngest players in the side.

“He put his hand up and said he’d like to have a crack at it and he’s doing a good job.”

Hole is one of half-a-dozen or so first-teamers who came through the club’s youth system.

“He started playing for us when he was 10,” said Waring, a former player himself. “We run teams at under-9, under-11 and under-13 age groups. We’ve got a good youth set-up.”

The club also run a 2nd XI who compete in Division One of the Stroud League.

“We call them Dad’s Army,” laughed Waring.

The flagship team competed in the Stroud League not so long ago themselves but after winning the title in successive seasons they decided to give the County League a go.

They soon got promoted again, so how far does Waring think the club can go?

“I think we might have one more promotion in us but that would probably be about it,” he said. “We have to be mindful of aspiration countered by reality.

“Division Five is quite a tough division. It’s very enjoyable, we’ve played some good cricket and it’s a pretty good standard.”

Whatever level the club are playing at next season – or in years to come for that matter – Waring is sure to be involved in some shape or form.

His two sons, Alex and Jaime, both play for the 1st XI although Alex is currently out injured.

But even allowing for Alex’s injury there are still plenty of Warings involved at Minchinhampton because mum Andrea does the teas.

And as anyone who has played cricket at Minchinhampton knows, they are very good teas!