JOSH BIRCH: YOUNG BARBADIAN IS A HUGE BOOST TO WAVERTREE

Date: 9th January 2016

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

In the light of the horrendous disasters recently visited upon Ramsbottom, Carlisle and many other fine cricket clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire, it seems almost disrespectful to talk about pre-season preparations and possible signings. For many officials the winter is going well if their beloved ground hasn’t been turned into a swamp and their machinery hasn’t floated away in the floods.

Nevertheless, as most Liverpool Competition clubs reflect on how fortunate they are to play their cricket where they do, they will also be stepping up their preparations for a season which begins in just about three months’ time.

At Wavertree, for example, first-team skipper Josh Birch is intrigued by the prospects for his young players in the Second Division and perhaps just a little relieved that his team did not win promotion last September.

Despite the runs scored by Birch (552) and Jafari Toppin (454) and the wickets taken by Kamir Sohail (47) and Matt Nation (46), Wavertree could only finish fourth in the 2015, 27 points shy of promoted Orrell Red Triangle. Yet Birch was perfectly content with his team’s showing last season and believes another year in the third tier will do his players plenty of good.

“Last year we began by saying that we didn’t want to be relegated but then we got on a good run and were near the top of the league and were saying how great it was,” he remembered. “But with four or five games to go we were wondering whether or not we were good enough to be promoted.

“I said that we’d simply play our best cricket and if that was good enough to get us promoted, we’d deal with it then. I think we would have struggled because we need a few of our younger players to come through. Half the teams are roughly of our standard in Division Two but it is a jump in quality when you go up to Division One.

“I think we are a little bit stuck between the two leagues at the moment.”

In 2016 Birch is hoping to make one relatively high-profile signing and he also wants to persuade a couple of Hope University students to play their cricket at Sandown Lane this summer. As has become usual, he will be welcoming a Under 19 player from Barbados to the club under the scholarship scheme from which both Wavertree and Sefton Park have benefited in recent years.

“I’ll be putting the Barbados lads up this year.” he said. “We may not be sure what we’re getting but they’ve been a huge boost to the club. We just take whatever player we get as a bonus and try not to expect too much from him but it’s easy to forget how young they are and that it’s their first time out of the country. They need our support.

“We’re also hoping that all our players from 2015 will be signed up for next year although Kamir Sohail may have an issue with visa applications because they’re bringing in new regulations next April, so we have our fingers crossed on that one.”

And like every other Liverpool Competition club, Birch will be hoping that the weather has more of summer than winter about it on April 23, the first day of the new league season, when Wavertree visit Caldy. But making demands of that sort seems almost impertinent at the moment, given that Ramsbottom and others will be happy just to be playing any cricket at all in April.

And every cricketer and follower of the game will join me in wishing the clubs who have suffered in the floods all the best for what may be the most demanding of seasons.