With just a few days to go before another hugely exciting league season kicks off, we caught up with our senior league captains to get their thoughts on the months ahead.

As always you can keep up to date with fixtures, results and perfomances by visitiing our ECB Play-Cricket site here:

https://lansdown.play-cricket.com/home

So what have the skippers got to say ..?

Jordan Smith, Lansdown Cricket Club First XI Captain

“This is the most exciting season for us in some years – with another year’s experience for our squad and the players we now have at our disposal, I think we have a real opportunity to suceed in all formats this year. The boys are looking forward to having a strong and successful season with the potential of competing for silverware.

The addition of Gloucestershire Professional Luke Charlesworth, plus Dan and Marc Lezar from Thornbury is really exciting, plus also new players that are set on challenging for first team places – Ed Walker and Henry Cheal, Tom Bradley, Jonathan Maynard and Harry Goddard. As we know in Prem 1 – a big squad of quality players to draw from is essential.

So, the side is looking really strong this year batting all the way down to 11 which you need in order to compete in WEPL Prem 1. I’m Looking forward to seeing how the new players settle into the side so keep a close eye on these guys.

Whilst we believe in ourselves and that we can compete at the highest level, Prem 1 is such a high standard now – there won’t be any easy matches. With the league basically being semi-professional, every side has game changing players.

All that said, our target this year is making Combe Park a fortress and using the tremendous support we get on a Saturday to be our 12th man.

So, all in all we’ve got an exciting few months ahead and we can’t wait to get started against Bath at Combe Park on Saturday!"

Dan Veal, Lansdown Cricket Club Second XI Captain

“It was a real privilege to be asked to skipper the 2nd XI this season - I know it’s one of the most important roles in the club.

Nathan did a fantastic job with the side over the last few years – building a sense of worth and professionalism to the squad. I guess my job now is to take that on with further success and take our second XI to the league status we believe we should be at for a club like Lansdown – that means into the WEPL leagues.

The new players that we’ve recruited to the senior squad is really encouraging and will undoubtedly add quality to our Second XI

We have a great youth set up going and some very talented youngsters who will feature regularly in the side. The aim is to give these lads some experience and guidance to push on, learn and eventually give Jordan a headache in the 1st X1. That being said I’ve also brought back a few “older” familiar faces by popular demand of the social side of the club who will also be featuring heavily this year.

If the great English weather can do its job this Summer we may well be in for an exciting season ahead. I can’t wait to get going and get this team where they belong. Up the Down!! "

Byron Williams, Lansdown Cricket Club Third XI Captain

I hope you are all looking forward to the new season and have everything crossed for better weather. The league has been restructured this year to try and reduce the amount of travel we have to do and we find ourselves in B&D 9th Division East. I look forward to this new challenge and expect a slightly tougher challenge than we faced last year.

I am buoyed by the recent additions to the club, which I hope will lead to better availability every week and fewer players being drafted in to the 2nds at the eleventh hour and thus give the 3rds some extra consistency from which to build week on week.

It’s great to see so many of last year’s team return and I am looking forward to getting back out there with all of you. Last year’s Team player of the Season, Ella is back from a winter of cricket down under and I look forward to seeing the results of her hard work on the field. If we can all have Ella’s enthusiasm and attitude, then we will be a hard team to beat.

In terms of expectations for the season, I don’t know what to expect as I have little knowledge of the teams we will be playing, however, what I do ask from everyone who plays in the 3rds, is that you turn up with a positive attitude and the desire to play hard but fair and to have fun despite the result. I know that if we focus on doing the basics well, as a team, we will win more games than we lose. We are all cricket fans who give up a lot of time to play the game and so I want us all to enjoy it. I know that, as captain, I enjoy the games much more if there is a sense of enjoyment and no ‘niggle’, so I ask that we play with the right attitude every week and not get ‘wound up’ by any of our opposition.

Our bowling was our strongest area last year and we were excellent at keeping the run rate down in the early stages of matches, however, too often, the fielding let us down. We know how hard is to run in and bowl on some of the pitches we play on, so we need to support our bowlers as well as we can.

We know we dropped too many catches last year, so let’s turn it around this year. We can be one of the best fielding teams in the league if we apply ourselves and in doing so, I am sure that opposition teams will feel the pressure and we will capitalise on their mistakes. We need to attack and chase every ball and not let stages of the match drift.

Batting – Everyone in the team can bat, however, we need to have more confidence in our abilities. Too often last season, we capitulated when the first couple of wickets fell and we need to get to a position where we don’t rely on the top order. With practice, concentration and determination, we can score runs from 1 to 11 and I would like to see this realised on the field this season and get some of the closer games over the line.

With this in mind, it would be great to see as many of the 3rds at training each week, working on your game. We have some great coaches and players at LCC, who are always willing to help you to improve, regardless of your age or ability, so let’s utilise the resources we have at our disposal to make us the team that other teams are wary of in the league.

Josh Smith, Captain, Lansdown Cricket CLub Sunday Development XI

"It is really exciting times for our Sunday XI with a list of players ready and available (always good to see) 17 for this Sunday!!

Our aim this season as a group will be to continue the development made last year and try an push for the league which with the mixture of youth and experience is something I hope we can achieve and certainly have the potential for.

I would like to create a team atmosphere which has fun, is relaxed and enjoys their Sunday cricket but with a competitive edge that brings the best out in some people!

Ones to watch for me this year will be Henry & Arthur Trotman, Cam Oliver (Ball), Jamie Durnford - as he looks to continue progressing and alongside your experience of myself, Trots (big & small), Vealy, Bowers and a few of the old regulars. It looks to be a promising season ahead!"

Ella Worthington, Captain Lansdown Phoenix, LCC Women’s XI

"I'm so so thrilled to be welcoming new and returning ladies to the Lansdown Phoenix team. I’m itching to get us on the field and cant wait to see what we can achieve.

We've got some very talented young cricketers - look out for our keeper, Betty - she’ll be getting comfortable back behind the stumps for another season!

Fingers crossed for a dry season to ensure fixtures go ahead. If any women or girls fancy a try out or want to get involved, the doors are open, please do get in touch."
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Good luck to all of our senior teams this year!