They haven’t started the celebrations yet but Painswick Cricket Club are so close to ending a wonderful season as champions.

Their three-wicket win over Tewkesbury at the weekend – they were set 226 to win – means they go into their final game of the season at Cirencester on Saturday needing just a couple of points to secure the Gloucestershire Division title in the West of England Premier League.

The league table shows that they are 24 points clear of second-placed Dumbleton, who host Bourton Vale on Saturday, and the maximum number of points a team can take from a game is 25. Only the top team are promoted to Premier Two Glos/Wilts.

“I can’t see us scoring no points and them getting 25,” said Painswick chairman Ian Hogg. “We’ve more or less done it.”

Another century by Painswick’s prolific young overseas player Keegan Jansen Van Rensburg helped set up Painswick’s win over Tewkesbury on Saturday.

The opening batsman made 125 from 138 balls, an innings that included 15 fours and three sixes, before being run out with the scores level.

Fittingly, it was skipper Jack Hobbis who came in and hit the winning run after earlier taking three for 48 with his left-arm spin as the visitors were dismissed in 47.4 overs.

Hobbis is the leading wicket-taker in the division with 37, but it was very much the Van Rensburg show on Saturday and Hogg is optimistic that the South African will return next season when they will be competing against the likes of Cheltenham, Goatacre, and Corse and Staunton.

And while Van Rensburg and Hobbis have had stand-out seasons, Hogg is keen to stress that it has been very much a team effort that has seen them win 14 and lose just two of their 17 games. The other one was abandoned.

“It’s been a brilliant season, very good,” he said. “I thought we’d finish maybe in the top four but we’ve got a lot of good, young lads. They play as a team, that’s the difference.”

It’s been an excellent season for Painswick all round because the club’s 3^rd XI have won Division Two of the Stroud League.