West Chiltington & Thakeham alter club culture in bid to progress

Chilt, who finished fifth in Division 3 West last season, developed and nurtured young players before they made the step up into men’s cricket.

But Howgate revealed that the club had now gone as far as they could with this strategy and were now focusing on improving their adult teams.

To facilitate this strategy, Chilt have signed former Sussex star and Scotland international Matt Machan as a senior cricket coach.

The 29-year-old will look after the development of senior cricket within the club.

Howgate said: “Many at the club sat down before Christmas and agreed that we had gone as far as we could with the current strategy.

“That was effectively developing the colts section so that the club maintained a strong pipeline into the adult sides.

“We now agreed we needed to invest more in the adult league sides and fundamentally change the culture of our practicing if we wanted to progress further, which was the consensus.

“This is why we approached Matt Machan.

“Matt has completely bought into our new approach and has agreed to lead our new coaching set-up."

Chilt will compete in the inaugural midweek T20 competition the Sussex Slam, if it is able to run, and Howgate is delighted to welcome back a few familiar faces for the tournament, as well as the league campaign.

He added: “The new Sussex Slam has seen several players return and we’re also delighted that Hugo Gillespie is returning after a season with Brighton & Hove.”