Cricket Season Arrives This Weekend
The start of the 2017 cricket season is nearly upon us and this weekend sees the cricket section start their season. Saturday the side, under the captaincy of Richard Grant, travel to Monmouthshire to face Abergavenny CC while on Sunday Ynys visit the capital to take on Barry Athletic CC.
During the close season we have been extremely active in trying to improve the playing staff as well as the coaching staff. We are delighted to have recruited former Glamorgan CCC, Essex CCC and England A international Darren Thomas from Bridgend CC. Darren will add the experience needed to take the club to the next level both playing and coaching. Since the Premier League was formed in 2010 we have developed and played a host of cricketers under 19 in the 1st XI. Last season alone seen Richard picking (then 16 year olds) Joe Lewis, Nishaanth Delavaye, and Adam Sylvester in the SWPCL and Darren's experience will be vital in the boys development in the forthcoming season.
Richard has also managed to secure the signings of Scott Thornton (Newport CC) and Alex Griffiths (Bridgend CC). Scott played 14 games last season in Newport's championship winning side taking 22 wickets, while averaging 20 with the bat.
Alex joins as a hard hitting all-rounder. He didn't feature much for Bridgend last season but we are extremely pleased both players have joined the club.
One player leaving the club is Sam Davies. Sam has transferred back to his home club Clydach CC. He averaged just over 40 last season scoring 321 league runs in 10 games. The right handed batsman played six seasons at Ynys in 2 spells (2010 and between 2012-16)scoring 13 league fifties and 4 league hundreds (3 in 2010). We'd like to wish Sam all the best with his new venture.
The Second XI captain was named last week as Adam Davies who takes over from veteran Gareth Atkins. We'd like to thank Gareth for all his hard work over the last decade. Adam, who is also vice captain of the football team, takes over with a lot of playing experience. He has been keeping in the 1st XI since 2012 and is looking forward to the new experience of captaining the side.
The third team is delighted to learn that Craig Thomas is continuing to skipper the side. The 3rds is a great breeding ground for our juniors to learn about senior cricket and the longer format of the game.
Off the field a new cricket committee has been started with the inclusion of former player Richard Curtis. Richard has joined our coaching team and will lead the new Cricket All Stars for players between 5 and 8 years old.
Former player Mark Davies also has a new role at the club. As well as coaching the juniors Mark has agreed to become 1st team manager. Also joining the coaching team of Sean Evans, Mark and Richard is of course Darren who is now Head Coach at the club.
We are also extremely pleased to announce a new club sponsor for the upcoming season. United Dental have agreed to sponsor us and we would like to thank them for their support.
We would like to wish Richard all the best for the season as he starts his 5th Season as skipper as well as Adam, Craig and all the junior captains. We all are hopefully looking forward to a successful season for the whole club in 2017 both on and off the field as we look forward to the future.
