CRICKET SEASON OPENS (From Warrington Guardian)

CRICKET SEASON OPENS

THE 1999 cricket season opens this weekend with Grappenhall and Warrington setting their sights on a place in the Cheshire County Cricket League's Premier Division they so narrowly missed out on last year.

Warrington finished 13th and Grappenhall 14th and narrowly missed out on the top 12 cut for the top flight.

Grappenhall go into the season under the new captaincy of Tony McCoy and are away to Marple tomorrow, Saturday.

The second team, who have won the league twice in the last three years, start their season in the second team Premier League tomorrow at home to Widnes. Skipper David Hudd is again expecting the team to challenge for the title this season.

The arrival of two new players Steve Hartley and Bobby Sharma as well as the return of Peter Hatton boost Grappenhall.

Spin king David de Prez will have a key role to play if Warrington are to win promotion after taking 69 wickets at an average of 15.49 in 1998.

His success was all the more impressive since he was only 16 years old at the time and enjoying his first season in the first team.

He went on to win the Cheshire League's Junior Player of the Year award as well as playing for Cheshire and Lancashire seconds.

Their main hope with the bat will be Phil Catterall once again after he hit 569 runs last year.

The club have spent the close season putting a major investment into putting three new batting tracks on the top wicket so they can improve their facilities for juniors.

This means they have decided not to take on an overseas player in 1999.

They have also lost captain Ben Smith, who spent the winter in Australia and enjoyed it so much he has decided to stay on.

Vice-captain James Hughes is standing in as skipper until someone is officially appointed.

Club secretary Roger Ollier said: "Warrington has a reputation for giving young players a chance to break through and we've put a lot of money into facilities so we keep that tradition going.

"We've not brought any new faces in this season so we're hoping to see a few youngsters make their mark like David de Prez did last year."

Warrington travel to Oulton Park, a side they have never previously played, in their opening game of the season on Saturday.

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