Excitement at Prowse return
FORMER CAPTAIN BACK TO INSPIRE RELEGATED NORMANDY
CURRENT captain Chris Jones admits it is “exciting” to have former skipper Neal Prowse, who led Normandy Cricket Club to Premier Division glory in 2017, back at the club after their relegation from the top flight.
Prowse, who has been living in Australia, also captained the team to the Division One title in 2019 immediately after their relegation from the Premier Division the season before.
Following a difficult campaign last year, Jones is hoping the experience of Prowse will help guide the young squad to a similar feat this year in their bid for promotion.
Jones said: “He’s very senior, he’s a great man and he bats and bowls very well, so he’ll be exciting to have.
“I think we were quite a young side last year and it was a tough season. The standard was very high so most of the games we lost we were outplayed.”
After finishing bottom of the Premier Division, Jones is confident it will prove to be a crucial learning curve for his youngsters that will see them challenging for an immediate return to the top flight.
He said: “It was a tough season but also a good one to learn from. We were obviously disappointed to go down, but we were lucky that we took the positive route on it.
“We decided we deserve to be in the Premier League, and we feel we’re a Premier League club.
“So, let’s work hard to try and get back up.”
Despite relegation, the skipper said a positive atmosphere remained around the club and this has been boosted by a successful winter of recruitment and training.
Jones said: “The club’s in a very positive place this year, we have recruited pretty well over the winter. It’s quite exciting – the turnout at the winter nets has been better than we’ve ever had. There’s a lot of energy around the club, a lot of positive changes, but we’re also hoping the young players have improved, which I’m sure they have, over the winter.”
Alongside Prowse, another notable addition to the squad is overseas player Scott Palombo joining from Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club in Australia.
The talented batsman was influential in a successful Queensland Premier Cricket campaign for the Australian side and Jones is delighted about the prospect of having the 24-year-old in his team.
He said: “He opens the batting and hopefully he’s going to score loads of runs. He seems like a really good fella, so yeah, looking forward to having him over.”
Amongst the squad of youngsters, Jones is particularly excited about the development of Harry Bowen who appeared 12 times for Normandy’s second team last season.
Discussing Bowen, Jones said: “We’ve got one young lad who’s on the EPP (Emerging Players’ Programme) at Surrey.
“He’ll be keeping and batting for us, so quite excited to see how he goes. It will be quite exciting and a good opportunity for him this year.”
Normandy start their Surrey Championship Division One campaign with a home game against Walton-on-Thames on Saturday, May 11.