Wavertree hopeful of retaining the West Indian influence

Date: 13th March 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

..... gearing up for Division 1 .....

Wavertree captain Matt Nation is “90% certain” that his club’s first team will once again feature a Barbados Under 19 cricketer this season. Craig St Hill’s 753 league runs helped the Sandown Lane side win promotion to the First Division of the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition last summer and Nation does not underestimate the Caribbean influence on his team’s fortunes in recent seasons.

“We’ve had four young lads come across from the West Indies and two of them have been very good cricketers indeed,” he said. “Craig’s batting was very mature and you could build an innings around him, but because the Barbadians are young players, you’re not always sure quite how good they are or how they will adapt to English conditions. However, we’ve been told that it’s likely to happen again and all I’ve asked for this season is a batsman.”

Nation’s preference is understandable given that Wavertree will not have Ken Highdale in their line-up this summer. Despite scoring 609 runs in 2013, Highdale has opted to return to Prescot and Odyssey, leaving the newly-promoted team needing to find 1350 or so runs to fill the gaps created by his and St Hill’s absence.

“The priority is the batting and I’d love it if there were some first XI batsmen out there who were looking for a club,” said Nation. “Making the step up has found us out in recent years because the fielding is better and the bowlers can maintain tighter lines. You can’t be defending totals of less than 200 every week, although if we play as we did last season I think we will be competitive.

Highdale has been the only player to leave Wavertree in the close season so the club will still have the services of the four bowlers (Matt Nation, Jonathan Nation, Kamir Sohail and Neil Clarkson) who claimed 153 wickets in 2013, slow left-armer Clarkson topping the list with 51 victims.

“We had four front-line bowlers and some new faces last year,” said Nation. “The atmosphere changed at pre-season practice and at nets throughout the summer. The team spirit improved and things changed for the better throughout the club. Three of four batters were contributing and I could set attacking fields.

“I have heard that there are two or three cricketers who are thinking of joining us for the 2014 season but nothing is settled yet and I will know better in a two or three weeks.”