Arthurton is leading right from the front
THE East Anglia Premier League might have switched to a new format but that hasn’t stopped Great Witchingham skipper Sam Arthurton piling up the runs in the opening weeks.
The Norfolk opener has enjoyed a brilliant start to the season for Great Witchingham, with 261 runs in his first three innings for the club this campaign.
Saturday saw him amass an unbeaten 128 as Great Witchingham chased down 254 against Copdock & Old Ipswichian for an impressive victory.
That made it two from two in a new 50-over competition, which has been introduced this season – with all-day games set to return later in the summer – and Arthurton is enjoying the new format.
He said: “We have gone to the 50over format with fielding restrictions for the first five games of the season and later in the summer.
“It’s good for the guys who are playing minor counties and also in the ECB national competitions and it’s always good to freshen things up a bit in the league.
“We’ll go back to the all-day format at the end of the month so we’ve got three more games before that.
“We need to improve there because it can be harder to get results, but hopefully we can build on our 50-over form.
“I’ve been really pleased with how things have gone to start the season, from a team perspective it’s great to have two wins out of two in the league.
“And personally it’s always good to get some runs to kick off the season.
“Early on you never know what it’s going to be like with the wickets and the weather so you can be a bit hit and miss, but thankfully it’s been good so far. I’ve been able to cash in a bit and hopefully I can kick on from there for the rest of the summer.
“In terms of preparation I don’t think much has changed for me, and my role remains the same, to get some runs at the top of the order and set up my teammates.
“It’s gone well so far so hopefully I can keep going.”
Arthurton admits that 2016 was a frustrating season for Great Witchingham, who finished tenth in the table.
While there was limited turnover within the squad over the winter, he believes the building blocks are in place for an improved campaign this time around.
He added: “We have pretty much kept the same group from last year.
“Will Rogers has come back to us from Norwich and Mike Jones is our director of cricket and also my vicecaptain so it’s nice to have someone with a bit of experience to take off some of the load for me.
“Last year was a disappointing one for us, but we have to push on this season and try to improve on that campaign.”