Cleeve Cricket Club have the opening match of their 2024 season this weekend after gaining promotion into the Senior Division of the Bristol and District Cricket Association.

Cleeve’s 1st XI finished second in the First Division in 2023 on 239 points from 18 games, 22 points behind champions Whitchurch and only four above 3rd place Downend in a tight promotion race.

This also follows promotion from the Second Division in 2022 where Cleeve finished top of the table, marking an extremely successful past few seasons for the club.

The North Somerset team were deserving of their ascent into the Senior Division of cricket though, a fantastic all-round season saw them record 10 wins and four losses, along with four uncompleted games.

Cleeve opened up the 2023 season with purpose, their first league game coming against Keynsham in which they won by 76 runs, hitting a total of 308.

Of those 308 runs, Mitchell Want produced 191 in just 108 balls, a league-wide high score for the season that also helped the opening batsman come second in the overall batting standings at the end of the summer.

The team followed up the opening win with another one at Downend CC, this time with the bowling on display as all-rounder Sam Williams took five wickets for 28 runs from 6.5 overs, leading his team to a three-wicket win.

Cleeve continued this form, picking up wins until suffering a big defeat to eventual league winners Whitchurch.

The squad were unphased though and they continued their brilliant season by going undefeated from June 28th to August 19th in all competitions.

The streak included a run to the semi-finals in The Tony Hitch Knockout Cup along with another huge victory over Knowle by nine wickets, holding the Bristol team to only 45 runs and forcing six of their batsmen to leave the square on ducks.

After such a strong 2023 campaign Cleeve CC will be wanting to start off their 2024 season in Senior Division cricket just as well against their first opponents, fellow promoted side Downend CC 2nd XI.

The two sides only managed to complete one game last year, with Cleeve coming out on top by three wickets, and they will be hoping to repeat the trick again when they visit the WG Grace Memorial Ground on Saturday 4th.