In 1970 Tom Boore, as he has indicated in the Foreword, moved to Ashleworth and became Captain of the Club during the years 1970-72 inclusive.
1971 saw the major move to league cricket with the Club being one of the founder members and then promotion from the Second Division in 1971 and in 1972 success in winning the Division I title at the first attempt beating second place Westbury-on-Severn by thirteen points.
In those days a draw was on and Tom Boore and Jim Saunders batted out a draw against Churchdown to secure the title in the last game.
The move to league cricket was not favoured by all Club members. One aspect considered unfavourable was the playing of games on Corporation pitches such as Plock Court in Gloucester. As a result the Club appears to have lost a few players and umpires around this time. This makes the winning of the league an even more remarkable achievement. Bill Nicholls' efforts as wicket keeper were a significant contributory factor to the success and this earned him the wicket keeping award in 1971.
To cap off a remarkably successful year for the Club in 1972 Woodpeckers also won the Tewkesbury Hospital's Knock-out Cup. The Woodpeckers were certainly flying high and in order to help taste some of the feelings, views and details of the latter part of the 1972 season you only need to read the press report in the Citizen of 4th October 1972 giving an account of the Club's celebration dinner and the interview by Colin Russell of Tom Boore in the News and Journal of 31st August 1972.
It is very pleasing to note Tom Boore's comments about the wonderful Club spirit that prevailed and the great team effort that was shown throughout the season. The Club recognised that future seasons would be very challenging as other sides sought to achieve league success. The challenge in defending the title came to a side with a new Captain in view of Tom Boore's decision to step down at the end of the 1972 season.
