Weymouth Cricket Club will make their return to the top-flight of Counties Manukau Cricket this season and they are already making waves with record registration numbers and a desire to win.
Counties Manukau Cricket promoted both Weymouth and Waiuku to the Premier grade for the 2021-22 summer after both clubs put forward compelling cases to get back that elite status, they lost a number of years ago.
“It is massive for us. We were gutted to lose that some years back and have been working pretty hard for the past three-four years in particular to try and get back into that place,” said Weymouth Cricket’s director of coaching Sam Whimp.
“It has been a huge effort form the committee and the players that have stuck with us and pleasingly we have got a number of returning players coming back to join us so we are really excited with the season to come.”
Immediately the Weymouth club is seeing the benefit of the Premier status with players flocking to the club in huge numbers.
Not only will they make the jump up from Senior A cricket, they have managed to not only retain their two Senior A sides from last season, but they may well be able to grow that to three teams in addition to the Premier team.
“Our plans are to have that Premier team – that is the pinnacle of cricket in the Counties Manukau region from a club point of view,” Whimp explained. “We are looking to have three Senior A sides. We have got two of those confirmed, all registered, and a third one is looking very promising.
“We will supplement that with what we believe will be two Senior B sides and two sides in the T20 competition as well.”
Weymouth were invited to play in the Inder Lynch T20 Premier competition at the start of last summer and made a good account of themselves, reaching the final and beating other Premier sides along the way.
Whimp thinks the nucleus of that side will make the step up, but they will be boosted with some new players.
“I think from that T20 side that we entered last year and came second in that competition, we would probably be retaining seven or eight in the premier side this year and then bolstering that with some players we have acquired or have come through the Senior A ranks, junior players and that sort of thing,” he explained.
“There are going to be a number of new faces that we will be fielding this year.”
And while the club continues to ensure their move back to the top-flight is sustainable by growing numbers below Premier level, they also have some ambition when it comes to their leading side.
“We are not just here to take part. We are here to put a good step forward,” Whimp said. “From a T20 point of view, we would love to win that. Coming runners-up last year was a bit of a tease for us. We feel like we have a team that will be very competitive so that will be the goal.
“The longer format will be a different challenge for us and one we haven’t faced in a number of years, but we would be looking for that podium finish. We are not here just to fill numbers; we are here to try and put our best foot forward and win.
“It would be good to see Weymouth in those top three positions for sure.”
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