Tara Murray
The future is bright for Romsey in the Gisborne and District Cricket Association.
Romsey, which has been in the mix the last few seasons in the top grade, the McIntyre Cup, is starting to see an influx of junior numbers.
Secretary Tim McCarthy said with more families moving to the area they were starting to see more juniors join the club.
“We’ve got more under-11s than we’ve ever had,” he said. “We’ll have three under-11 teams, maybe four. The kids are coming through our Woolworths program.
“We’ll have a junior girls program again. We’ll have under-13s and under-15s as well. It doesn’t look like we’ll have under-17s.”
The senior program has had a couple of people join their sides as well, but McCarthy expects the first XI to look similar to last season.
Romsey finished the regular season in fourth spot, before winning through to the grand final which it lost to Gisborne.
It continues a run of strong performances for Romsey, having made the finals all but once since the 2017-18 season.
“Hopefully we’ll go alright,” he said. “Nearly all the players from last year are back.
“Hopefully we’ll enjoy every game and see where it takes us.”
Ben Way is back as playing coach and will again play a key role for Romsey. Way averaged nearly 50 with the bat last season, with six not outs.
McCarthy said there were some younger players who would be pushing for spots in the top side.
“Last year our second XI won the premiership,” he said. “We’ve got a good bunch of players coming through.
“Hopefully the depth is there, we’ll see where it takes us. We have some young ones who played some good cricket last year, they’ll look to push into the ones.”
McCarthy said the return of two-day cricket would be a benefit for them and would hopefully lead to a few more wins.
The last two seasons only one-day games were played due to ongoing concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the combination of players we have, we’re better suited to two-day cricket,” he said. “We can bat for longer and make bigger scores.
“Our bowlers can have longer spells. It changes the demographic for everyone.
“Everyone is up beat up at this time of year, but everyone starts the season 0-0.
“Hopefully we have a good start to the season and see how it goes.”
