Skipper excited to tackle life in the Premier
Newly-promoted Norton Lindsey & Wolverton certainly won’t be looking to just make up the numbers in the Cotswold Hills League Premier Division this season according to skipper Jack Yendall.
The club topped Division One last term and the captain is confident that they can carry that momentum into the new campaign.
Yendall said: “We had an up and down season and, if anything, I thought we slightly underperformed in that division. It became clear to us at the start, especially with some of our experienced guys knowing a lot of the teams, that it was going to be between ourselves and Ragley and maybe a big team like Kenilworth Wardens with their 3rds in the division because you never know how they were going to come out.
“Looking at the way teams are lining up this time, I think we could finish almost anywhere this season. There is absolutely no point in going into a league to make up the numbers. If that’s the attitude a team takes with the amount of clubs around at the moment then they are going to lose a lot of games because they will lose a lot of players. People turn up on a Saturday, giving up their day to try and win games.”
Norton Lindsey & Wolverton head to Bretforton on Saturday before hosting Lapworth at their Recreation Ground the following week.
Yendall added: “I would consider that we are never out of any game and this season we have three or four match winners in any situation. There is a guy we brought over last year, David Johnson, who made just over 900 runs in the league when he just took it apart. He came over on a working holiday from Zimbabwe and linked up with our manager Dan Fell. The next thing I knew he was coming to play for us and do some coaching with some of our juniors. Seeing him in the nets, I just don’t understand how he hits the ball so hard, he absolutely smashes it. He is coming down again and I think he will be very important for our season.
“We have a very good attack and I’m excited about the coming year and it will be interesting to see who takes the new ball. We are quite a seam-heavy attack. We are the sort of side that can hold teams down with our consistency, it is hard to counter-attack against bowlers who just keep putting it on the spot. That’s how we bowl teams out for lower totals, you can turn an average ball into a wicket-taking ball by bowling 12, 18 or 24 of them in a row.”
