These are exciting times for Whitminster Cricket Club.

Their 1^st XI are playing in Division Four of the Gloucestershire Cricket League and are fifth in the 10-team division after winning promotion last season.

It’s the highest level the village club have played and skipper Jack Price’s team are only four points behind third-placed Churchdown who they travel to play on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the 2^nd XI are setting the pace at the top of Division 8D under captain Tom Johns after winning 13 of their 14 games.

“It’s going really, really well,” said chairperson Sam Hill.

It certainly is and the successful times look set to continue because the club have just completed their 2025 All Stars and Dynamos season when they welcomed more than 40 boys and girls aged five to 11 for coaching.

The club are also setting up a women’s team - the first training session saw 15-plus players take part - and newcomers to Whitminster will all have been impressed by the club’s new community sports pavilion which was opened at the start of the season.

Sam Hill, who took on the role of chairperson in October, is helping to drive the club forward, of course, and while she is not alone - “We’ve got a good group of people supporting the club,” she said - it’s fair to say that she is playing a pivotal role.

It’s been a fascinating journey for the 31-year-old who readily admits that she has never played cricket.

She became involved with Whitminster about seven or eight years ago when she went along with friends to watch them play and she was immediately bowled over by what she saw.

“I became their tea lady and then I started to learn how to score,” said the Longlevens primary school teacher who lives in Gloucester.

“Now I score nearly all their Saturday home games. I’m also their safeguarding lead and I’m in charge of junior cricket as well, so chairperson was the next step!”

Hill, a former Denmark Road School pupil, may not have played cricket but that is set to change because she is keen to be part of the new women’s team which the club hope will be up and running in 2026.

The club are also looking to start a youth system in the next couple of years with Hill saying: “We’ve got the All Stars and Dynamos, they are a good mix of boys and girls and we want to keep them.

“We really want a junior section, maybe we’ll look at establishing an under-13 team.”

That’s important for the future of the club, of course, a club that is clearly thriving on and off the pitch.

“We’re doing fantastically,” continued Hill. “The new pavilion is brilliant, it took two years to build, Tom Johns was the driving force behind that.”

And what about on the pitch?

“We want promotion, we always want promotion,” said Hill. “The club are thriving and we can only get better.”