Cheltenham are celebrating after winning back-to-back titles in Division One of the Cheltenham Indoor Cricket League.

Skipper Stefan Hunt’s side have run away with the competition this season – they are eight points clear of Cheltenham Civil Service who have two games to play – and they are now turning their attention to the end-of-season league, county and regional play-offs.

The prize is a place in the national finals indoor day at Lord’s and 33-year-old Hunt, who has been captaining Cheltenham’s six-a-side team since 2015, admitted: “That’s the dream.

“We came so close last year, we missed out in the final regional play-off game at Taunton. Driving home after that was very hard, we’re desperate to go one better this time.”

Cheltenham have been on an upward journey for a while now.

“We’ve been together as a team for many years,” continued Hunt. “Civil Service have dominated indoor cricket in this area for a long time, we always seemed to finish second.

“We managed to win the division last season – it was close with Civil Service – but this year we’ve played very well, we’ve been consistent all year.”

So much so that their only league defeat came in their most recent game when they were beaten by two wickets by Hatherley and Reddings after Cheltenham had made 77-5 in their 12 overs.

“It’s a shame we lost our unbeaten record but it was a good game,” said Hunt. “We didn’t get enough runs which hasn’t happened very often but we took it to the last ball. They needed three to win and Prakash hit a four.”

Cheltenham’s final league game is against bottom-of-the-table Charlton Kings tomorrow before attention turns towards their league play-off against Cheltenham Civil Service.

Cheltenham may have got the better of them in the league but it was Service who were the winners when they met in the Cheltenham Indoor Cricket Cup Final before Christmas.

Cheltenham lost by five wickets after being bowled out for 48 and Hunt admitted: “We had a meltdown.”

That was a disappointment for Hunt but after clinching the title in style this season he is looking to the future with confidence.

The regional play-offs will be held in Cheltenham this year and if Cheltenham get that far, Hunt said “Home advantage is huge.”

And he added: “We want to have the same sort of dominance that Cheltenham Civil Service have had over the years.”