Dumbleton will play in the top flight of the West of England Premier League for the first time in their history in 2026.

They held off the challenge of Goatacre to clinch promotion to Premier One thanks to the nine points they collected from their abandoned game at home to Royal Wootton Bassett on Saturday.

“The players have done really well,” said chairman David Smith. “It’s something they’ve been striving for all season, in fact the past two or three seasons.

“We were helped by the weather on Saturday, it looked for all the world that it was unlikely that we were going to win on Saturday while Goatacre were clearly going to win their game.

“That would have made it very, very tight, it was nervy.”

Wootton Bassett, who lost the toss, had made 245-7 from 44 overs when the rain came, while at Goatacre, the home side, chasing a revised target of 141 in 43 overs against Hatherley and Reddings, had raced to 46-1 in five overs.

Goatacre picked up 11 points from their abandoned game which left them nine adrift of Dumbleton, who have led Premier 2 Glos/Wilts for much of the campaign under the captaincy of Myles Holland.

Smith confirmed that Holland is expected to continue as skipper next season – “Myles has done a great job,” he said – when they’ll be up against clubs such as Bridgwater, Bath and Bristol, as well as Frocester.

“We’re a very young side, the average age is 22,” continued Smith. “The majority of the team are homegrown players.

“I think the aim next season will be to stay in the division. It won’t be easy but we’ve got a strong batting line-up and if we can get an overseas batsman I think it can happen.”

Australian batsman Tom Kelly was their overseas player in 2024 – he made a stack of runs in all competitions – and there is a possibility that he could be back next summer.

“He’s keen and we’re very keen but it depends on his commitments with Cricket Australia,” said Smith.

Smith is also hoping Dumbleton will continue to be able to call on the services of 20-year-old batsman Tom Boorman, who has a rookie contract with Gloucestershire. He was available for about half of Dumbleton’s league games this season.

But they won’t be able to call on seam bowler Archie Bailey, who has signed a three-year contract with Durham.

“Most of the teams we’ll be playing against next season are semi-professional,” added Smith. “We only pay our overseas player and our player/coach.”