Smethurst: Something Had To Be Done, But I’ll Miss Ashton And Crompton

On the eve of another season as captain of the seconds, Roger Smethurst shares his thoughts on the season ahead.

He admits it will be a tough season, as there will be few ‘gimme’ games, but rues the loss of away trips to some of the now Second Division sides.

He also picks out some of his players to watch, who could be challenging for first team places by the end of the season.

A good read from one of the CLL’s most thoughtful cricketers.

The new season looks like it will be a challenging one for second XI and  will be a tough test for our young side. Undoubtedly there will be some competitive matches throughout the season which can only be good for improving the standard of cricket that is played. The top division has some very strong sides, most notably last season’s champions Norden, the Burton Cup winners Middleton and the league runners up Rochdale.

However I feel it unlikely there will be any “easy” games. I am not sure if the current restructure is ideal as the prospect of playing the same teams four  times does not overly appeal and I will miss going to grounds like Ashton and Crompton, but I accept something had to be done to try and improve the standard of first  team cricket in particular.

We go into the season with a similar looking side to last year and I would hope that we are able to push on and win the trophies that narrowly escaped our grasp last year. At the moment it looks like Andy Dawson has a great opportunity to establish himself in the first team and I do not expect him to feature at all for us this season. While he will be a big loss to our team it opens up opportunities for others to move up and establish themselves within the team.

Rick Purser was the division’s leading wicket taker last season and early pre-season form, coupled with the intense fitness programme he has undertaken, looks like he will continue to be a key figure for us.

Lee Grogan dropped down in the middle of last season and proved a massive influence as a bowler, and with Andy having gone, I will be looking for him to put teams under early pressure with Rick and get us off to a good start in the field.

Sam Byrne had a good season last year and with Rob Slawson retiring and Chris Kaye not getting any younger this is a big season for him to try and push for first team cricket. These three will then be backed up by Dominic Fawcett, who impressed both with bat and ball last year, and who I expect to become a regular in the team, and Simon Dawson, who a couple of captains rated as the most difficult bowler to face in second XI cricket.

Last year our Achilles Heel was our batting. This is an area that I will be looking for us to make improvements on. We need Simon to look to build longer innings and I’m looking to start the season with Wes Hunt as his opening partner.

This is a big season for both of them as they need to set themselves targets and learn to build innings if they are going to develop into first team players. We then have a couple of younger players in Dominic and Ben Thulborn, who look very promising and who we have high hopes for.

The middle order was our strength last year and with Adam Fawcett, Lee Grogan, Chris Booth and Phil Dawson we have the potential to put big scores on the board if we can keep wickets in hand early on. We also still have Scott Jones donning the gloves and this is a big season for him after a promising first season for us last year.

Heywood are in a very fortunate position in that we have a large and talented squad of players pushing for 2nd XI cricket.

Within the coming weeks we will have players like Tom Blundell and Kate Cross pushing for selection and this competition for places can only be healthy.

I have made no secret of the fact that while winning trophies would be ideal the main focus of the 2nd XI is to develop the next generation of 1st XI players for HCC. Quite clearly some of the above have the ability to go on and become 1st XI cricketers, but now need to put performances in to back their ability up.

If everyone performs to their full ability I can see no reason why we cannot be “in the mix” again for silverware.

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