Captain of the Murrayfield Dafs Third team, James Gutteridge, looks ahead to the season
In many ways, the third team is the hardest captaincy job as I’m sure many of those who have held the role at any cricket club on the planet will agree. The 11.00am Saturday phone call that your best player has just been promoted to the second team is the thing of nightmares. That said, James is optimistic for 2019.
He remarkes that, “The 3s had a bit of a mixed season last year, we had some great wins but also some pretty disappointing losses. With the leagues being reorganised we’ll be playing a division higher than last year so the goal is probably to keep ourselves in Division 5”.
Being promoted to Divison 5 means James didn’t know a huge amount about the teams in the division this year, but he noted that Holy Cross Seconds and Edinburgh CC Thirds were pretty dominant last season in Div 6 so we know those will be tough games.
When asked which game he was looking forward to, he immediately said, “Largo Seconds away. We don’t get to play on grass very often and Largo have a beautiful ground. Not so excited about the journey to get there though… “. Another issue for a Third team captain…. who can drive!
James was finally asked about how he saw the club’s position just now. “Tough to say! We had a lot of interest from new players over the winter which was positive but we don’t know yet how many will stick about for the summer.
There were also some good signs at indoor nets from existing players, especially some of the older juniors, so fingers crossed they can kick on this year too”.
