ASHES-winning cricket star Geraint Jones will be returning to his roots when he calls in at Lydney Cricket Club as part of a 360-mile charity bike ride.

The retired wicketkeeper-batsman, who skippered Gloucestershire to the Royal London One Day Cup in 2015, grew up in Australia, but played for the Forest side as an overseas player when he first came to Britain in the mid-1990s.

Jones has signed up to join 2005 Australia-bashing team mates Marcus Trescothick and Ashley Giles for Big Bike Ride 3 when it heads through the area on Monday, October 16.

And the peleton will stop off at the first club he played for in England, as well as Ruardean CC, as they cycle from Worcester to Monmouth School via Mitcheldean.

Sadly, 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan won’t now be able to ride the Wyedean stretch from Mitcheldean to Monmouth, but will be involved earlier on.

Jones will join four other former England cricket stars in Rob Key, Tim Bresnan, Matthew Maynard and Gavin Hamilton.

The five-day ride starts at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham on October 13 and finishes at Cardiff’s Swalec Stadium on October 17.

The ride was launched in 2013 following the death of Matthew Maynard’s cricketer son Tom, who played his early cricket with Glamorgan before moving to Surrey.

It will raise money for the trust established in his name and the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) Benevolent Fund.

The first two Big Bike Rides raised more than £320,000 and this year’s event takes on added significance as 2017 is the PCA’s 50th anniversary.

To donate search for Big Bike3 on www.mydonate.bt.com