SWINDON Cricket Club is enjoying a purple patch and has some rising stars coming to the fore in the youth sides.

While the senior first XI have just secured the West of England Premier League Wiltshire Division title and the second XI have been promoted to Premier 1 2nd XI Division, the under 15s are waiting to see if they will win the Wiltshire Youth Cricket League for the first time in the club’s history.

With South Wilts yet to play their final game, the Swindon team could move down to second, still a very commendable achievement in a tough league.

The under 13s have had a mixed season, but Josh Weaver, Shivam Seth and James Davis have been consistently impressive.

There are now two under 11 sides playing in the Wiltshire Youth Cricket League, and both sides have put in good performances this season with help from Sam Giddings, Imran Hanif, Ben Wilson and George Moore, among others.

The club and its band of willing volunteers work hard to nurture the most talented local youngsters to fulfil their potential, whilst also encouraging beginners to get involved.

Joe Thomson is a clear example of why the club’s “open-door policy” is so crucial, as he only started playing the game two years ago and has already developed into a highly rated opening batsman.

The club’s youth squads have gone from strength to strength in recent years, and the club are pleased to see some strong friendships forming within the teams.

All the teams have worked extremely hard to improve, with Davis “practicing over and over again in the nets” to get the bowling figures he has.

With the summer drawing to a close, it would be easy to assume that the youth sides would be packing away their cricket bags until next season.

However, there is no such let up as most will undertake some form of winter training schedule.

This will be most rigorous for Jake Goodwin, as he will start training almost immediately before joining up with the Hampshire Academy.