The Indoor cricket season has come to a close in Gloucestershire with the conclusion of the Regional Final.
As the rain finally begins to ease, the bluebells show their face, and the nights get slightly brighter. Spring is just around the corner, and with that, the start of the cricket season. But while most of us hibernated, the indoor cricket season was a hotly contested affair. After qualifying for the England and Wales Cricket Board Regional Final, the hosts, Cheltenham, had a chance to make the National Final.
It was the first time that Cheltenham had hosted the event. Waterlooville (Hampshire), Ventnor (Isle of Wight), and Neyland (Wales) made up the final four. After a 5-wicket victory over Ventnor in their semi-final, Cheltenham took their place in the final against Waterlooville.
ECB indoor 6`s regional finals – 8th March 2026.
Fielding first, Cheltenham started well, an excellent opening spell by young Prav Timaraju and the experienced Liam Walker combined with two sharp close catches reduced the Hampshire Premier League side to 27/3, Andy Hawkins (C & B) removed the dangerous Jon Hudson, added a run out, and the visiting team looked in trouble at 50/5 with just one wicket remaining.
Last man stands in the indoor game, Dan Birch made good use of the remaining overs to reach 57no himself and guided Waterlooville to a respectable 96/5
In reply, Cheltenham made a controlled start, Andy Hawkins (22) and Alex Howarth (12) laid a foundation, and at the halfway mark, it was anyone’s game. The Hampshire champions made life difficult with outstanding fielding. 4 run outs in this final, plus 5 in the semi, most were direct hits. Despite this, Cheltenham battled hard and fell just 19 runs short.
Waterlooville will go on to represent the South West region in the national finals at Lord`s on 29th March 2026.
Congratulations to Cheltenham, who, despite this loss, reached the last 8 teams nationally in this competition for the 2nd year running.
Going From Strength to Strength
The indoor game goes from Strength to strength in the county – The Cheltenham cricket hall was packed away for the summer, 171 days after the first match played in September.- It has seen all levels of indoor cricket from the 4-division local competition through the national quarterfinals/regional finals.
The game itself is fast, fun, and has many nuances which can act as a leveller – creates an opportunity for friends often separated in the summer playing at different levels to play together, a number of father-son pairs also feature, and weather is never an issue!
Leagues run in both Gloucester & Cheltenham from September to February each year. To find out more information, get in touch with Andrew Moss.