Dumbleton Cricket Club will be playing in the second tier of the West of England Premier League next season after they clinched the Gloucestershire Division title with a four-wicket win over Charlton Kings.

It will see them rubbing shoulders with the likes of Cheltenham and Hatherley and Reddings in Premier Two Glos/Wilts, and skipper Ross Martin is already looking forward to the challenge.

The season just finished was 27-year-old Martin’s first as captain – he only joined the club at the start of the 2022 season – and he’s obviously delighted with the way things have gone.

They’ve not been beaten in the league since June and Martin said: “It’s been a really great season. I don’t think we expected to win the league halfway through the season but we’ve been on a really good run, it’s been fantastic.”

Indeed it has because although much of July was wiped out because of the wet weather, Dumbleton have been in fine form over the final month of the campaign, winning all their games.

“The big game was beating Tewkesbury the weekend before last,” said Martin. “They’d been top for most of the season and that win got us in front.”

Dumbleton won that match by five wickets but they knew they still had to win on Saturday to make certain of the title and, with it, the one promotion spot.

And Charlton Kings certainly didn’t make life easy for them.

“No they didn’t,” said Martin, whose side chased down a score of 234-8.

“It was a proper game. Adam Stuart batted beautifully, he batted really well to make 79. To have a knock like that in the final game of the season was special. He used all his experience.”

Experience is not something that Martin, a top-order batsman, has too much of when it comes to captaincy.

“It was my first ever season as captain,” he said, “but we’ve got a great team and the players made my job much easier. I’ve learned a lot.”

And the one-time Frocester and Painswick player is looking forward to leading the side at the higher level in 2024.

“It will be a step up but we’ll be ready, we’ve got such a young side,” he said. “We’ll be looking to recruit a couple of players and we may need to bring in a new overseas player.”

Sri Lankan Rashmika Madushanka was their overseas player this year and Martin is hopeful that he will be back in 2024 after a fine campaign.

And while the players have obviously been key in the club’s success this season, Martin is keen to stress that it has been an all-round effort.

“We couldn’t have done it without our coach James Cotterill,” he said. “He’s been the club’s coach for three seasons and he’s a fantastic coach and a fantastic person.

“And all the volunteers at the club, we must have more than 100 volunteers and they’ve all played their part.”

They certainly have and the senior section of the club have enjoyed a truly stellar season because the men’s 2^nd XI won the Gloucestershire League Division Four title, while the women’s team won the Cotswold CDCA women’s league title.