BOOTLE SET FAIR FOR KNOCKOUT SUCCESS

Date: 26th July 2015

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

A Prince among skippers

Cricketers are frequently encouraged to enjoy the game, and quite right, too. When all the blather’s done with, a game is what it is. They are also told that pressure comes when they are in danger of being made redundant or, far worse, when there is illness in their family, not when they are 50 for five on a Saturday evening.

But like most comfortable generalisations, these two postulates need more careful examination. There is pressure skippering a formerly successful cricket team that suddenly can’t buy a win in a charity shop; and it’s pretty difficult to enjoy cricket when you’re losing every week.

Now think about captaining Bootle’s first team when they occupied one of the bottom two places in the ECB Premier League a few weeks back. Let us be frank, a few readers of this article will already be smiling contentedly at the recollection. One of the most successful clubs in the history of the Med Imaging Liverpool Competition and one with a very active recruitment policy was suddenly in danger of playing First Division cricket in 2016.

It wasn’t the easiest time to be learning the many skills needed by the even halfway successful captain yet Craig Prince is adamant that he never doubted himself and he insists that, given time, his young side will mature and improve.

“One thing I’ve always wanted to do was captain Bootle but I know it was never going to happen instantly for us,” he said. “But I’ll admit that I was worried after the Lytham game because we were very poor that day.”

Indeed, Prince was so worried at the way his players slid to defeat against Lytham that he had “a meltdown” and went “berserk”, a loss of control which he regrets. Since that defeat, though, Bootle have won three of their last four league games and lie in mid-table. In addition they are in the semi-finals of both the Liverpool Echo Knockout Trophy and the Ray Digman while on Sunday they beat Glossop in a 15-over game to reach the last four of the Lancashire Cup, where they will play Clitheroe.

Prince isn’t fooled, though. He knows that his team haven’t suddenly metamorphosed into world beaters, but suddenly things are looking a whole lot better and, guess what, he is beginning to enjoy his

cricket again. Still, however, in his “Captain’s Corner” article in Bootle’s programme, he is appealing for patience from spectators who remember Coey, Hitchy and the trophy-stuffed summers.

“Bootle have a young team with a captain in his first year and we’re not ready to compete at the top of the league yet but we do have a good limited-overs side,” he said. “The spectators understand that we are trying to do things differently. It’s important to remember that we’ve only won the Premier League in one of the last seven seasons.

“We’ve signed young players who have only ever grown up with overs cricket and I think the club game as a whole has been influenced by T20 cricket which is why a lot of games don’t go to the last hour,” he added.

“The step from playing 50-over cricket in the Central Lancashire League to having to think about getting players out as distinct from simply stopping them scoring is very big. But that’s what’s good about timed cricket, there’s so much going on and our players are starting to adapt.

“We had four or five bad weeks. Our weak point was the batting. We had six games in a row when we didn’t really get hammered but we never got over the line. Putting good scores on the board has allowed us to set attacking fields and let the bowlers go to work.”

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to hear Prince talk about what it was like when his side was propping up the Premier League and how he sees a project which is going to take more than one season.

“It affected me at home, at work and on the field,” he said. “There is a lot of pressure that comes with being captain of Bootle and the opposition players let you know it. I’m big enough and strong enough to deal with it but I now think that with the exception of New Brighton and Ormskirk, any of the other teams can be relegated this year. I’ve never known a Premier League like it.

“The truth is there was a lot of rebuilding and restructuring to do. Our Australian batsman, Jackson Knight, is only 20 but he’s learning how to bat in English conditions and that’s where he’s going to bat for the rest of the season. No one’s coming into the club and no one’s leaving. It’s now up to the players we have.

“There’s also more going on with the juniors at the club and the players we have are going to be here for a while. They have to learn how to play timed cricket and they have to perform. Slowly it’s coming together.“