Kiveton Luke for a title

The Bassetlaw Cricket League gets underway tomorrow, and Kiveton Park will be hoping to start a title challenge.
Kiveton v Belvoir in a 20 20 cricket competition.  Pictured is Kiveton bowler Luke Donaghy  (w110628-5a)Kiveton v Belvoir in a 20 20 cricket competition.  Pictured is Kiveton bowler Luke Donaghy  (w110628-5a)
Kiveton v Belvoir in a 20 20 cricket competition. Pictured is Kiveton bowler Luke Donaghy (w110628-5a)

The men from Stone Close have strengthened in the winter, and skipper Luke Donaghy is keen to put a disappointing 2012 campaign behind him.

Speaking to the Guardian ahead of his second season in charge at Park, he said: “The winter has gone a bit better than expected, we’ve got a couple of new signings that has strengthened the team.”

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“Everyone is in high spirits and I would love nothing more than to win the league.”

“We’ve got a very strong team, the strongest we’ve had for three or four seasons.”

Donaghy, whose men triumped in a pre-season friendly last week against a touring side from Essex, hopes that Kiveton’s form at the tail end of last season will carry forward to this term’s Championship.

“We knew last season would be hard, trying to shake that losing habit after coming down from the Notts Premier, but towards the end of the season we got it together and won four on the bounce.”

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“I think this year we’ll turn it around and be there or there abouts.”

While Kiveton travel to Retford in their first outing, local rivals Anston will host Notts and Arnold Amateur at Ryton Street.

Martyn Long is looking forward to his debut as captain.

He said: “It hasn’t been too bad a winter, although we’ve lost a couple of experienced players, but we’ve got a lot of good youngsters who’ve come through the junior ranks.”

“We want to finish in the top half, we’ve got to rebuild a little bit with the juniors and we’ll be trying to capture a bit of silverware in the cup competitions.”

Amila Perera returns for Anston this season, having starred with the ball and the bat over recent years.

Long added: “He definitely brings the juniors on and gets involved in their training sessions.”

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