Dumbleton are champions of the West of England Premier League.
Just a year after winning Premier 2 Wilts/Glos they clinched the Premier One title after a rain-ruined final day of the season.
Only 20 overs were possible in Saturday’s game against Thornbury, who made 133-7 after winning the toss, but it was enough to earn them nine points, 12 points more than runners-up Midsomer Norton.
The result was just the latest chapter in a remarkable rise through village cricket for Dumbleton, as they became the first side to ever seal the WEPL title having been promoted the previous year.
It wasn’t an easy ride to the trophy. Dumbleton failed to win any of their opening five league games before producing an extraordinary turnaround, winning 10 of their next 12 matches.
15 years ago, Dumbleton was a pretty small village club. Today, after years of investing in youth and building from within, they are champions at the highest level of recreational league cricket in the West of England. What’s also remarkable is that most of the championship-winning squad came through Dumbleton’s junior programme.
It wasn’t just team success; Dumbleton’s victory was powered by overseas player Thomas Kelly finishing as Division One’s leading run scorer, while Ollie Horne was the leading wicket taker.
The title crowns an astonishing season. Dumbleton also won the County Cup and Varistha T20 competition, their Second XI won Gloucestershire County League Division Two, their Women reached the Hundred final and the Under-17s became county champions last week. A few weeks ago Dumbleton also made headlines across the country by scoring an extraordinary 417 for two in a T20 match, believed to be a world-record team total.
Club Captain Ross Martin said: “What makes this so special is how we’ve done it. We’ve built from the bottom up, invested in young players and always tried to do things the right way. We have a fantastic culture and an incredible group of volunteers, players and supporters. To see that approach pay off at the very highest level is something everyone at Dumbleton should be immensely proud of.”
Rain Ruins Final Round
Only one match was completed in the top flight, with Bristol’s Williams Rudge thumping an unbeaten 56 from 27 balls in their two-wicket win over Potterne, who had made 192-8 in 20 overs. The win lifted Bristol out of the bottom two, above Bath, into eighth.
In one of the few other matches where any cricket was played, Cheltenham 2nds climbed out of the bottom two in the Gloucestershire Division after beating Gloucester by 10 runs in a rain-shortened game. Cheltenham made 168-3 in 20 overs, with Noah Cooper Llanes making 66 from 52 balls before Gloucester, who ended the campaign in fifth, fell just short despite the best efforts of Scott Montgomery (48) and Luke Carr (47).
