“The 2nd XI season started what seems like a long time ago on a cold morning in April, with a friendly against a Durham University eleven.
“With our winter preparations completed and everyone feeling fresh, we ended up winning reasonably comfortably, and we had hoped this would set the tone for the rest of the season. However in the next few weeks we were to be shown that to succeed this year we were going to have to earn every success we had, when we were defeated heavily by Nottingham and then a combined Kent and Essex second eleven.
“These defeats however, acted as a turning point in the season. The team realised and spoke about the lack of responsibility being shown, and the lack of match winning performances in the early parts of the season, this realisation then led to the highlight of our season, reaching the final of the second eleven t20 competition.
“During this competition the team really developed a system which worked well for us, led by Mark Stoneman and Kyle Coetzer with the bat, who got the team off to a great start in pretty much every game we played. We ended up being beaten by a very strong Sussex team, but we made a decent game of it, and left Fenner’s disappointed we had not won, showing the levels of confidence we had gained as a team throughout the competition.
“The rest of the season was met with moderate success, and a lot of rain. As a team we had found our own and performed strongly in the one day game and had a chance to qualify for the finals day of that competition in our final game against Lancashire. Facing steep odds of qualifying, we would have had to beat Lancashire heavily due to being behind on run-rate, however in the face of such steep odds, we were still confident, a trend of our season.
“Unfortunately the rain prevented a full match and led to a reduced overs game, again making our chances smaller, leaving us 124* to win in just 14 overs due to run rate, we were always going to have a go, but sadly fell short.
“The experience of being a young player in a second team environment may appear to be a daunting task, learning your trade around players who are very much established cricketers. However with the busy schedule, and spending a lot of time with the other lads in the team, especially a lot of time away from home, you become a very close-knit unit. There is plenty of opportunity for myself and other younger lads to learn from the professional staff, and this can only help us as cricketers.
“The top performer and rightly awarded second eleven player of the season this year was Michael Richardson, top scorer in the team with 691 championship runs at an average of 46, also claiming 37 victims behind the stumps. Balancing this success with being the team skipper was never going to be easy but he accomplished it all very well and appeared to thrive under the added responsibility.
“As a whole the season was a rollercoaster, met in one hand with the heights of reaching the t20 final, and in the other hand with a number of disappointing defeats. Towards the end of the season the team had a shuffle of personnel with the team becoming a lot more youthful and more opportunities being given to young academy players, a theme which may be carried on next season. Overall a very enjoyable season which as a young team, we can take a lot of lessons from, and hopefully turn this into game winning performances on the pitch next season.
“On behalf of the team I’d like to thank our scorer, Richie Hilton, and our physio, Susan Coates, for their support throughout the season.”