ALDER PLAN FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS

Date: 30th May 2014

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

Aitchison in no rush

For some clubs a display of extreme caution when talking about promotion is little more than protection against possible disappointment. But when Alder skipper Andy Aitchison says that finishing in the top two in the Second Division of the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition would create “difficulties”, you tend to believe him.

Aitchison’s club made their debut in the Competition in 2010 and won promotion in their first season. Having finished eighth in 2011, they were relegated by a street the next year and the past twelve months or so have been taken up with an attempt to get their bearings and think ahead. They have had enough of the promotion-relegation switchback.

“This is a building period at our club and we have a five-year plan in place,” said Aitchison. “We want to be competitive in the Second Division and win more games than we lose but we also want to develop our side so that we’re strong enough to play First Division cricket when promotion comes along.

To that end, Aitchison is skippering a team which features a balance of youth and experience. Hemal Watekar has been engaged but will be working with the club’s younger players, notably his fellow off-spinner Lewis Riley, who Aitchison describes as being “very accurate and unfazed by anything”.

And Alder’s seamers may be helped by the return from Liverpool of veteran Lance Mulholland, who will not be registered in time for this Saturday’s home game against Caldy, but should be available for next Saturday’s visit to Spring View.

“In many respects we have a First Divison, if not a Premier League set-up,” said Aitchison. “There are great people at this club and we have a hundred kids turning up for coaching on a Friday evening. But we just don’t want to rush things, we’ve done that once.”

So far this summer Alder’s results have been very respectable indeed and Aitchison’s team is currently fifth in the table. Defeat at the hands of league leaders St Helens Town has been balanced by victories over Hightown and Sutton and a fine draw against Burscough in a contest which boasted an aggregate of 493 runs.

“It’s been a decent start,” said the skipper. “We’ve got at least four decent batters and we’ve only been beaten by one of the top teams in a game where I had no professional to call on. Overall, we’re happy.”