Eastbourne cricketers: Bring on the tough start

Eastbourne Cricket Club are looking forward to the new season, declaring: Bring on the tough start.
Jacob Smith hopes for a summer of wins and wickets / Picture: Jon RigbyJacob Smith hopes for a summer of wins and wickets / Picture: Jon Rigby
Jacob Smith hopes for a summer of wins and wickets / Picture: Jon Rigby

Last year’s August Cup champions visit Preston Nomads for their 2021 premier division opener and then host 2019 champions Roffey.

But that’s fine by skipper Jacob Smith, who said: “We probably couldn’t have got a tougher start but we’ve got to play them at some point so it doesn’t bother us.

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“I think there’ll be a fair bit of rustiness around the league too, considering we haven’t played loads of cricket in the past year.”

Sussex Cricket League officials hope the season will begin on May 8 and Smith said: “After going unbeaten last summer and winning the August Cup, the target has got to be challenging at the top end of the league. We should also have a couple of national cup competitions to play in and it will great to see how far we can go in them.

“But to be honest, It’ll also just be nice to be back playing league cricket, provided that some sort of normally returns, so we won’t get too hung up on major targets.

“I think we’ve got a number of young talent players who are starting to move on from that ‘tag’ and are really pushing for higher honours.

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“Henry Crocombe signed a pro deal last summer and he’s renewed that for this year so these guys aren’t far away. Sussex definitely seem to placing more emphasis on youth prospects too so it’s really exciting to see how four or five guys all pushing for pro contracts in our team might perform.”

Smith is optimistic the season won’t be too disrupted by ongoing Covid restrictions.

He said: “I’m confident we’ll get a full season in because we’ve got a bit of a formula from last season. I’m hopeful things will be a bit more normal with teas and changing rooms and so on but if we have to continue what we started last year to play a full league season then that’s fine by me.

“We haven’t really thought about an overseas player at all. If things were to change drastically with international travel then we might consider it but I think we’d manage just fine without one.”