EVANS ACHIEVES AMBITION AND LOOKS TO YOUTH AT RAKE LANE

Date: 12th January 2015

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

Changes and continuity at New Brighton:

Martyn Evans admits it says something about the Premier League’s leadership demographic that at the venerable age of 31, he is quite likely to be one of the oldest of the top division’s 12 skippers.

Already reconciled to being about the third most senior player in New Brighton’s side, Evans may regard his matches against Ian Cockbain’s Formby as pleasing reminders that he is very much in his prime. A more obvious indication of the all-rounder’s undoubted class, of course, is offered by his 756 league runs and 28 wickets in last year’s campaign and he is now preparing to achieve a long-standing aim by leading his club in a season in which expectations are as high as ever on the Wirral.

“I’ve spent ten years in the Competition and this is always something I’ve wanted to do,” he said. “For me to take over from Louis Botes can be seen as a natural progression and I’m quite happy to be taking it on.”

However, rather like their friends and rivals at Wallasey, the succession of New Brighton’s new skipper will not be marked by changes in personnel. Evans knows of no first team players who will be leaving the club and the only question mark is against the availability of his predecesssor, Botes. That should be sorted soon. Overseas professional Upal Fernando, who scored 600 Premier League runs in 2014, has already been engaged for the new campaign.

“I don’t think it’s generally known that Upal was our leading run-scorer in all Competitions last year,” said Evans. “But on top of that he was a great coach and I made it clear to him that we wanted him to return.”

Also happy to be playing for New Brighton when his Lancashire commitments allow will be Luke Procter, but Evans is very direct when asked about his club’s plans and how they relate to paid cricketers.

“We do have players in the side whom we fund but we also have some very good youngsters, some of whom are perhaps a couple of years away from being full first-team cricketers,” he explained. “Our aim is for the professionals to show the youngsters the way forward, so that in time they will take over and we will have a very strong New Brighton-based team.”

Having seen his side finish as runners-up to Ormskirk in 2014, Evans hopes to make a renewed challenge for the title next summer but he has also identified other targets. “It may sound like a bit of a cliché but we aim to win every game we play and nothing’s happened to change that,” he said. “We want to excel in every cup and I’ll be using some of those Sunday games bring youngsters on while aiming to achieve our ambitions. We wouldn’t enter competitions if we didn’t think we could win them.”