Newark R&M Cricket Club confident and ready for upcoming season

The captain of a cricket club who led his team to promotion last season is confident for the next, writes Gianluca Spataro.

Harry Atkinson, captain of Newark R&M Cricket Club, led his team to promotion as they finished third in Division D last season.

Looking to the upcoming season, Atkinson is confident that new Division C is a league Newark R&M can hold their own in — possibly finding themselves on top.

Atkinson said: “If we aren’t at the races we could be struggling. I don’t see us getting relegated.

"All teams are solid, on our day we can beat anyone although we are also vulnerable to losing if we are not quite on it."

Last season started slow for the team as with very few friendlies beforehand, there was not enough practice. The squad were three of four games without a win.

The squad, learning from their mistakes, do not want to repeat last season’s start because if they were to win those games — they would possibly have hit their target of finishing in the top two.

Atkinson said: “At the start of last season we underachieved and should have been pushing for the top two.

“We have got where we wanted to be but it wasn’t up to the standard it should have been, as we should have finished first or second."

To improve this, the team started indoor training earlier than usual as it’s always good to be overprepared than underprepared.

Even with some availability issues, Atkinson is confident they have a good mixture of lads and some new talent coming through to benefit the team when competing in this league.

Batting for Newark was highly improved last season as they did not rely as much on their bowlers and are looking to take that flare with them into the new division.

Newark R&M will play away at Radcliffe this Saturday, April 30.