DUNSTALL captain Martin Clewley is looking forward to locking horns with former club Walsall on the trail to Lord’s in the Kingfisher Beer Cup.
The Stags skipper — who played for the powerful Birmingham League outfit in the 1990s — will lead his men out against Walsall at Deer Park on April 29.
“I’m excited about it,” said the experienced off-spinner. “Being in the south of the county, we tend to get drawn against sides from the Birmingham area.
“You always know if you play a side from a big league they’ll be tough opposition.
“And it being a former club adds a bit extra to it.” Walsall have recently been involved in the Dunstall Twenty20 Knockout and their experience of Deer Park will be a leveller in the tie.
“We’ve got home advantage, but that’s negated somewhat by Walsall having played here before,” said Clewley. “But it’s always a good early season fixture and hopefully we can progress.” Lullington Park, meanwhile, will face Wolverhampton, another powerful side from the Birmingham & District Premier Division.
Captain Jonny Shales is also relishing the prospect of a good battle in the cup, formerly known as the National Club Championship.
“Wolverhampton are consistently in the top half of the Birmingham Premier League, which is a tough league,” said allrounder Shales, who led Lullington to the Derbyshire Premier League title in 2010.
“We always look to do well in the National and last year, due to availability, it gave a few of the young up and coming lads a taste of cricket at this level.
“Pleasingly they performed and the likes of Charlie Veale and Bill Arnold put themselves on the radar with match-winning performances.” “It’s certainly a competition we’d like to win, but it requires a lot of commitment from the lads to make themselves available amid what is already a demanding schedule.
“Luckily, this year our proposal to make the Premier Cup a straight knockout was accepted, which will reduce the amount of Sunday cricket and help us to field strong sides in all competitions.”
The third Burton and South Derbyshire side in the cup — which is exclusively for top division outfits `— is Ticknall.
The Grange side, who finished an impressive fourth in the Derbyshire Premier League last season, face Birmingham & District Premier Division runnersup Wellington CC, from Shropshire.
Luke Harvey’s men, though, will have home advantage in the tie.
They will also have former Dunstall spinner Scott Chilman available to them after he left Deer Park for the Grange.
“We’re disappointed he’s gone as he’s a quality player,” said Clewley. “But he’s got a lot of friends at Ticknall and we’re still fairly strong in the spin bowling department.”
WE have been asked to point out we used a picture of the wrong Mick Haynes in Wednesday’s feature on the new Rolleston Cricket Club captain.
Our sincere apologies go to Mick and the cricket club
