"The club's really excited!" Skegness CC set for Lincs ECB Premier return

Newly-promoted Skegness CC will begin their Lincs ECB Premier campaign on Saturday - with captain Norman Brackley keen for the club to establish themselves in the county’s top tier.

“The club’s really excited,” he said.

“Promotion to the Lincs ECB is a big step up for the club bit it’s a good move for Skegness to get us on the radar.

“As a club, we stepped back from the ECB about five, six years ago and we’ve had to work hard to get here, do a whole lot of rebuilding, looking at the junior section and seeing what players we’ve got.

“We’ve been chipping away slowly but it’s well deserved and the club need to continue moving forward.”

Last season’s South Lincs and Border League Premier Division runners-up have added South African Joshua Greeff to the side, as well as youngsters Will Bowser and Freddie Bowser.

The campaign begins at Woodhall Spa, who have brought in Notts spin bowler Matt Carter while the ex-Sri Lankan international returns as captain.

“As a club we need to be realistic,” Brackley added.

“Yes, we’re not going to win the league, but we have to give it our best shot.

“We know the teams we’re competing with but we need to give it our best shot to try to beat them. We want to be mid-table, focussing on the teams we can beat.

“We’re looking at building, getting used to the standard. In the first team I think there’s only three people who have played ECB standard before.

“We need to get comfortable and push on from there.”

Skegness Seconds will entertain Sleaford Thirds in the SLBL Division Two on Saturday.

They secured a 53-run win at Boston Thirds at the weekend in their curtain raiser.

Ethan Garner (78), Danny Lymer (49), Solomon Bailey (36) and Andrew Sylvester (25 no) helped the visitors post 223 for 7 off their 45 overs.

In response, Boston finished on 170 for 6.

Bailey took three wickets for the loss of 16 runs and Carly Rush added two victims for the loss of 24.