United looking to go all the way
It’s all systems go for United Cricket Club’s senior sides, as the Eastern Cricket Union’s (ECU) 2016/2017 senior club cricket season gets going this weekend, with Premier League and Promotion League matches scheduled for Sunday, October 2.
A new season always brings about fresh changes and, in the ECU region, it is no different.
Eight new clubs have entered teams into the ECU’s senior Saturday and Sunday club cricket leagues for the 2016/2017 season.
There will be two new faces in the elite competition, the Premier League, as highly rated Alberton Cricket Club and Bedfordview Cricket Club have made the move from the Gauteng Cricket Union, to make the league a 12-team competition.
They bring with them an abundance of talented players and excellent facilities.
The team which finishes top of the table will automatically advance to the final, while second and third will battle it out for a spot in that final.
The Promotion League will consist of 20 teams this year, with a number of new clubs moving into the region, such as Midrand, Scaw Metals and Katlehong.
Last year was United Cricket Club’s best ever performance in the Premier League.
They finished as runners-up in the league stage of the competition (on net rate to Benoni Northerns Cricket Club) and then lost out in the second versus third place play-off semi-final, against Kempton Park, at Willowmoore B.
It was a tough pill to swallow for a side who had been so incredibly competitive during the season and who had gone undefeated in the first half of the campaign.
This year it is a clean sheet again and the team is confident that they can go all the way to Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) National Club Championships, in Pretoria.
It won’t be easy, though, with a lot of movement of players at perennial rivals (Benoni Northerns, CBC Old Boys and Kempton Park) and the addition of the two newcomers Alberton and Bedfordview.
JP Meade, Kevin Hinton and Aidan Justus have returned to the squad after gaining experience with spells overseas during the winter season, while skipper Justin Gamble recently earned his first cap for the Easterns semi-professional side at the Africa T20 Cup.
Gamble was also given the opportunity to play a warm-up game, with three Easterns teammates and the balance of the side from the Northerns Union, against the touring Irish national side, who played South Africa and Australia in Benoni.
That team beat Ireland in the last over and Gamble scored 54 runs off 34 balls.
United have also welcomed back old boy pace bowler Peter Trewick to the fold.
The Premier League team will welcome new boys Bedfordview to Hosking Park on Sunday, October 2, while the Promotion League XI also face a new proposition when they travel to Olifantsfontein, to take on Midrand.
