First XI

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First XI play in Division Four of the Northamptonshire County League

Captains 2023 Season Summary and 2024 Season Preview

Never a dull moment in the NCL… Not for the first time as Captain of the club, we had a season in which our final table standing bore little significance on the eventuality on our league movement. That said, I’ll take a promotion having finished exactly mid-table! The key word for the First Team last season, unfortunately, was “absence”, in which nobody is to be blamed – many weddings, stag-do’s, cruises and summer holidays filled a large part of our squads’ weekend extra-curricular activities, but that is the nature of the beast! 

As always, I’d like to thank my vice (Alex Holmes), our former Second Team Captain (Alec Morgan) and the Head of Cricket (David O’May) for all the effort they put in last year. The unseen work done especially by David made sure that we fulfilled almost all fixtures amongst all teams every week. The season for us itself was up and down; we had some fantastic performances including a strong win against our local friends at Stony thanks to Holmes (99) and a, so far, career best bowling performance from Collins (6-43). Another strong performance from Collins (107*) saw us gain a home win against formidable O.G’s with a double bowling effort from Weston (4-41) and Lewis (4-43).

I’d again like to thank all of our Second and Third team players who stepped up to the First’s when numbers were not on our side. Without you jumping into the fold, we may not be looking to this season in the same light as we are now, so

I cannot thank you enough. We also had a good humbling or two in a few games very much indicating that this upcoming year is not going to be easy in any way shape or form. With that said, we’re very much looking forward to another year of strong battles against a few old, new and familiar clubs to play against. 

It’s been fantastic to see a good uptake in numbers over Winter nets, and I’m looking forward to how the hard practice goes into this season. It’s also fantastic to see one of our own return to the club in Amelia Ridgway who started her cricketing journey here! As Club Captain, it’s always amazing to see the work put in from our youth coaches and the Third’s captaincy team to enable our youth players to flourish – and this is typified by the club now being able to put out an under 15’s side. Hopefully the start of a great pathway for the club from All-Stars to First team. 

Here’s to another season in which we grow as a club and see the benefits on and off the pitch!