Vice-captain Sean Marsland will lead Eastcombe when they host Cirencester 2nds on Saturday.

He takes over from regular skipper James Maxwell, who is unavailable, and will be looking to make it five wins on the bounce in Division 6B of the Gloucestershire Cricket League. 

It’s a run of form that has lifted then into the top four in the 10-strong division, but the form guide only tells half the story because, remarkably, three of the four games could have gone either way when the final ball was bowled.

Last weekend’s one-wicket win over Oldlands followed a four-run success over Tormarton seven days earlier while at the end of last month they overcame Oakridge by one wicket.

In between, they enjoyed an eight-wicket victory at the expense of Rockhampton 3rds.

Marsland was in charge against Tormarton and Maxwell, who is in his third season as skipper, said: “It’s amazing, we were talking after Saturday’s game and we said we’d never known a run of results like this.

“We’re loving it, it’s great fun. What makes it so nice is that we are a proper village club.

“We’ve got a little pavilion, a little ground and the team is made up of people in the village.”

They’ve actually won six of their last seven games and Maxwell continued: “The great thing about this division is that it doesn’t matter where you are in the table, anyone can beat anyone.”

It was certainly anyone’s game on Saturday after seventh-placed Oldlands were bowled out for 143 in 38 overs after losing the toss.

“We lost some silly wickets but we still won with eight overs remaining,” Maxwell said.

“Everyone is having trouble with the wickets, we can’t get enough water on them.”

When Eastcombe slipped to 109-8, the home side were in the driving seat but Mo Baig, the last-gasp hero of the win over Oakridge, joined 16-year-old Sam Hart and they added 25 for the ninth wicket.

There was still work to be done when Baig departed for 12, but Hart was up to the challenge, hitting the winning runs to finish unbeaten on 19.

Earlier, Ben Price had been the pick of Eastcombe’s bowlers, taking 4-31 in his eight overs.