GOLDEN Hill have wrapped up what is surely an historic clean sweep of five league promotions!
Four teams were washed out on Saturday, but points awarded for cancellations ensured that they will next year be playing in higher divisions.
Three were confirmed as champions – and two more have a chance of also finishing top with one more round of games to go.
The first XI are preparing for life in WEPL’s Premier Two Bristol & Somerset division after getting their hands on the Bristol & North Somerset title.
The 2nds and the 4ths are also guaranteed first place finishes, in Divisions Four and 11, respectively, in the Martin Berrill Bristol & District League.
Golden Hill 3rds, meanwhile, find themselves 11 points clear at the top of Division Nine while the 5ths – the only team to play on Saturday – trumped United Banks by four wickets to open up a 20-point lead in Division 14 with their 6ths currently occupying fifth place.
It’s a wonderful achievement by a vibrant club that for six weeks this summer were able to select no less than eight senior sides!
This could be just the start though for Golden Hill who came up with a six-point development plan in 2017 when the first team finished sixth in Division One of the Bristol & District League.
Director of Cricket John Colley said: “It covered everything … from putting in place a more rigorous selection policy to improving our facilities and expanding our women’s and girls’ section.
“What we’ve achieved since is due to an unbelievable amount of hard work by people on committees and volunteers across the complete club as well as our captains and vice captains.
“Our youth section now has somewhere between 230 and 250 members, from under 9s through to under 19s, and the quality of players feeding into the senior side of the club is so high that we feel we can go from strength to strength.
“Despite all of this success, we’re not stopping here. We want the youth section to establish itself as one of the best in the region, to further expand our women’s section and for the Saturday teams to continue to push on in their leagues and keep moving forward.
“The secret is to never stop!”
Pictured are Golden Hill’s five promotion winning captains, 1sts to 5ths, left to right: Harry Thomas, Razi Ahmed, Callum Middleton, Shaun Parker and Gerry Davis