WEST Gambier Cricket Club’s Barber Shield team will have a new leader at the helm for the 2019/20 Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association season.
Richard Crute has taken on the captain’s role, filling the place of the joint effort by Niall Easterbrook and Jake Blackwell last year.
With Blackwell an out for 2019/20 due to a shoulder reconstruction, Crute received the call up and certainly has the credentials of a skipper.
He joined the Roos at the start of the 2017/18 season and has since been a valuable member of the team, with a wealth of experience behind him.
Crute will not be changing anything too much this year and said it will be a joint effort on the park each week.
“I may be the captain, but there are 10 other voices in the team,” he said.
“We are all playing for the same result – we all want to win.”
Reflecting on last year’s results, which saw West go down to eventual runner-up Penola in the semi-final, Crute said he hopes to build from there looking towards this season.
“We made the semi last year and then probably had our worst batting performance against Penola,” he said.
“We were a bit unlucky in the field with a few chances not going our way, but that is cricket in the end.”
Besides Blackwell, Ben Hentschke is another loss for the team, as he heads across town to play at East Gambier with his brother Alex.
The loss of the leg spin bowler is a blow to West, but Crute is confident in the junior talent rising through the ranks.
“There is still a couple of experienced players here, but we are looking at a few of the juniors to step up,” he said.
Yount talents Connor Prior and Josh Cornolo will be looked to for solid years as they take on further responsibility in the senior ranks.
While he will be sidelined for the opening half of the season, Bray Stephenson will also be a big in, with his return expected after Christmas.
“At the moment his foot is a bit sore after surgery which ended his campaign last year,” Crute said.
“Hopefully we can get him back after Christmas and we will go from there.
“We have 11 players to put on the park each week and hopefully we can get the job done.”
So far the team has held a couple of training sessions and Crute said numbers have been “pretty good”.
“We just had a couple of hits on Monday nights and numbers have not been too bad,” he said.
“It is not the same people out there every week which is good.”
From a club point of view, West looks in a good place and has teams in all-but C Grade, with two Under 12 sides showing promising signs for the future.
“I think everyone is just keen to get in and give it a good crack,” he said.
“The junior numbers are through the roof which is always fantastic for a club.”
It is still early days and how 2019/20 will shape up is yet to be seen.
However, Crute is hopeful for a successful year which will to growth in coming seasons.
“We have a pretty young group again so hopefully we can get those lads to stay together and try and build something,” he said.
“Hopefully we can get a couple of early wins and see how the season pans out.
“The key to success for any team if you ask them is when you are bowling you take early wickets, then when you are batting you try not to lose those early wickets.
“You can build a platform for later on in the day where you can actually start to attack the ball once the bowlers start to get a bit tired.
“Boring cricket wins games.”
