FORMBY CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN FOR PREMIER DIVISION

Date: 12th February 2015

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

Preparations in La Manga in April

While players at most Liverpool Competition clubs are currently enjoying the delights of pre-season nets and anticipating the special thrill of contracting hypothermia when playing the summer game in early April, Formby’s first team squad and officials are looking forward to spending a week in La Manga in preparation for the start of the Premier League campaign.

This will be the second year that Ian Cockbain has taken a dozen players to Spain before the season gets under way but the Formby skipper is not relying solely on sun and sangria to get his men ready for the demands of top division cricket.

The 2014 First Division champions will play a 50-over match against Murcian side San Pedro before returning home where a line-up featuring a few new faces will aim to shock the powerhouses of Merseyside cricket. In the autumn Formby recruited Gary Keedy, Stephen Parry and 6ft 8ins fast bowler Alex Lines to their ranks. Now they have added Bristol University opener Dane Williams and New South Wales batsman Patrick Pisel as well.

Williams scored 589 league runs for Neston in the top division of the Cheshire County League last year while Pisel will arrive at Cricket Path as the latest recipient of his state’s cricket scholarship.

Originally from Darwin, the 20-year-old Pisel moved to Sydney in the 2012-13 season to join the Mosman club. As a right-hand batsman and off-spinner, he had represented the Northern Territory U17’s and 19’s and impressed in Grade cricket during 2013-14, scoring 655 runs at an average of 54.58.

That form was enough for New South Wales to select him in its Futures League and he has since played second team state cricket and is already in receipt of a New South Wales contract.

Cockbain also reports that Jack Vale is to return to Cricket Path having added a yard of pace to his cricketing skills and it seems clear that the former Bootle skipper’s side will be a force to reckon with in a couple of months’ time, even if, as seems unlikely, the player recruitment programme has ended.

It may all send out something of a warning to Ormskirk, New Brighton, Lytham and Northern that the top spots in the Premier League are going to be even more keenly contested than ever and that’s without considering the potential offered by a greatly strengthened Firwood Bootle team. For all that it lies two months away, the 2015 season is looking like one to savour in all divisions of the Competition.