BIRKENHEAD PARK BACK WHERE THEY BELONG

Date: 27th June 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Skipper Stenhouse sees Comp as "big challenge"

The aftermath of Birkenhead Park’s defeat at Southport and Birkdale last week may not have seemed like the best time to talk to their first team skipper but Chris Stenhouse is not a cricketer to let one result colour his view of what has so far been a very decent season for the promoted club.

Three wins from a run of fixtures that included the top division powerhouses have left Park in the large group of sides around the middle of the ECB Premier League, and that is seen by Stenhouse as a very acceptable return for a predominantly young side which still something of a work in progress.

“We’d definitely have taken this sort of record at the start of the season,” he said. “Our first six fixtures included Northern, Bootle and Ormskirk, so we’re really pleased to be where we are. We probably could have played a bit better against the very top sides, but we’ve beaten Leigh and certainly held our own.”

A glance at the statistics reveals where Park’s particular strengths lie at the moment. While Stenhouse and all-rounder Robbie Houghton are among the top dozen wicket-takers with 26 and 15 successes respectively, Houghton’s 194 runs makes him the only Park batsman to top 150 after nine games.

Even those stats don’t tell anything like the whole story, though. Opponents have found that Park’s top order batsmen are more than capable of putting together a decent score and the bowling is not just about Stenhouse and Houghton.

Some shrewd recruitment over the winter has helped, too. Park’s squad has been bolstered by the addition of the former New Brighton and Oxton batsman Chris Davies, the ex-Leigh and Northop Hall bowler Adam Hodgkins and a young Australian talent in Matt Smith.

“The key to our success is our team morale and that goes a long way I find.” said Stenhouse. “The new signings have bedded in really well and from a personal point of view, I do think it was a really good move to sign Adam Hodgkins. He’s come in this year, bowled some really quick spells and done a very good job for us.

“But we’ve also got the young lads, Khalid Wahbi and Matt Smith, who’ve done well for us in some games. Matt’s an off-spinner who plays second grade cricket for Bankstown in Sydney and he’s our first overseas signing since we rejoined the Comp. He’s not a professional but he’s come over because he wants to have a go in England. It’s a perfect combination when he bowls in tandem with Robbie.”

That combination may be waiting for Fleetwood Hesketh’s players when they arrive at Lower Park this Saturday but whatever the outcome of that game, Stenhouse is content with his club’s progress and the league in which they are playing their cricket.

“The Premier League has been a brilliant challenge and I feel the Liverpool Competition is where Birkenhead Park should always be,” he said. “We were away for a while but now it’s feels like we’re back where we belong.”