If ever a team wanted the sun to shine it’s surely Hatherley and Reddings Cricket Club.

After winning their opening five games in the Gloucestershire Division of the West of England Cricket League, their flagship team have seen their last two games cancelled because of the weather and they are very keen to get back out on the park and back to winning ways when Tewkesbury come calling tomorrow.

Skipper Owen Price admits to a slight concern that they may lose some momentum – it’s nearly three weeks since they thumped Painswick by 102 runs – but their supporters will certainly be hoping that they can carry on where they left off at the start of the month.

After overcoming Bourton Vale by four wickets on the opening day of the season – Bourton are Hatherley’s nearest challengers in the division – they enjoyed comprehensive wins over Cheltenham Civil Service, Cirencester and Gloucester, posting scores well in excess of 250 in all three of them, before that win over Painswick.

“Yes, it’s all going well at the moment,” said Price, “everyone is pulling their weight. The players are pulling together and we’ve got the potential to have a good season.

“But we’re only looking at the end of June, not the end of August.”

Price, an off-spinner, is right to be cautious, of course, even though Hatherley have opened up a 12-point lead at the top, because there is still an awful lot of cricket to be played in the 10-strong division and only one team will go up to Premier Two Gloucestershire/Wiltshire.

“We’ve got quite a young team and the young ones are starting to perform,” added Price, who at 38 is the team’s elder statesman.

“It does help that we’ve had some good players return to the club this season – Dan Jones, Tom Hage and Callum Stewart – they’ve made a difference.”

Hage in particular has been firing on all cylinders since re-joining the club from Dumbleton.

The middle order batsman has reeled off two centuries, a 92 and an 86 in the Gloucestershire Division and is currently averaging more than 137.

And while his runs have obviously been very important it’s not been a one-man show because there have been important contributions with the bat from Sam Coote and Nipuna Gamage.

Elsewhere Max Kelly took five wickets in one game and with Sri Lankan Gamage, an off-spinner, also among the wickets – “He’s very good, you can tell he’s a first-class cricketer,” said Price – it’s easy to see why there is such optimism around the club.

Price, who is in his fourth season as captain, would love to win promotion while remaining unbeaten but insists it’s too far ahead to start thinking like that.

More immediately, he’ll be concentrating on keeping his players focused on Tewkesbury, especially as this weekend is the club’s annual beer and cider festival.

“The players can have a drink but not until after we’ve hopefully won the game,” Price laughed.