RIMMER UPBEAT ABOUT NEXT SEASON

Date: 8th October 2014

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

Fleetwood Hesketh's ups and downs see them welcoming Division One

Fleetwood Hesketh talisman Neil Rimmer believes that playing in the First Division of the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition will not be a major problem for his club.

Despite winning six matches, sufficient to ensure survival in other years, the Sea Cop side were relegated at Rake Lane on the penultimate Saturday of the season, but Rimmer reckons that their previous experiences will stand the Marshside players in good stead next summer.

“Relegation has happened to us before, we’ve even gone straight down into the Second Division and we certainly don’t want to do that again,” he said. “But the First Division is a good standard of cricket on good grounds and there were five sides who could have gone up going into the last Saturday of the season just ended.

“In fact, I think the First Division is the most even league because you have 12 teams who are basically on a par with each other. And a few people at our club are quite happy because they think we can be more competitive in the First Division and we’ll have good games of cricket every week without thinking that we’re going to have to do something out of the ordinary to win.”

Yet Rimmer also acknowledged that Fleetwood Hesketh did manage to do something very out of the ordinary on a few occasions in 2014, most notably when they beat Northern and then when they failed by two runs to chase down 264 to beat New Brighton.

“It was a funny season really because we spent a lot of it thinking that we were not good enough for the Premier League but then when we looked back we’d won six games and I can immediately think of three others that we could have won.

And if we’d won nine, we’d have finished mid-table, so after a tough season it could have been so different. We can do well and win games but it’s doing so consistently that’s been our problem for some time.”

However, Rimmer admits that it doesn’t take long to identify the prime cause of Fleetwood Hesketh’s travails. Four batsmen scored over 300 runs but none of them bettered Rimmer’s own total of 380, a tally he might expect to double in other summers.

“We didn’t score enough runs,” he said simply. “Our bowling was pretty good but you can’t defend low totals week after week. And despite taking 40 wickets and 319 runs, Ulricht van Duyker probably found the standard higher than he expected.”

For 2015 Rimmer expects his club to recruit nearer home if possible although he thinks offering an opportunity to a young overseas cricketer looking to make his way might be considered.

“I don’t see us splashing a load of money out but then in the First Division you’re not under pressure to get a top professional,” he said. “There’s nobody said they’re going to leave and we do have good young cricketers who would maybe profit from being in the First Division. Also our second team got promoted, so the step up to the first team will be that more manageable for those players.”