Sudbury Cricket Club captain Paddy Sadler admitted his side ‘hasn’t got started yet’ and have struggled to build momentum in the Thurlow Nunn East Anglian Premier League after having two of their opening six matches cancelled.
After their trip to Frinton-on-Sea on May 4 was called off for wet weather, the rain also abandoned the Talbots’ match at home to Copdock & Old Ipswichian on Saturday.
Sudbury have picked up two wins from the four games that have been completed, defeating Ashmanhaugh and Barton Wanderers and Mildenhall in April, which leaves them eighth in the early league standings.
The skipper – before the new campaign – stated that his side want to re-establish themselves as Suffolk’s top team but, without a consistent run of matches and the inability to train twice a week, that target is proving hard to fulfil.
“It’s been really stop-start because of the weather. It’s been one of the wettest starts to the season I can remember to be honest. It impacts everything, in terms of training and also the conditions when you do play,” said Sadler.
“It feels we haven’t got started yet. I guess it’s good that we’ve won half of the games we’ve played.
“We’re really good at training on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we’re often one of the best training teams I think there is.
“Building momentum is difficult when you can’t train properly either.”
Sadler labelled the 77-run victory away at Mildenhall as a performance that showed the best of his side and hopes the squad – that he feels contains a good balance of youth and experience – will show their qualities in the coming weeks.
On bank holiday Monday, Sudbury played two matches in the National T20 Cup 2024 preliminary rounds and bowed out of the competition against Frinton.
Despite the loss, playing time was welcomed by Sadler, who hopes that a few individuals will have benefitted from the T20 experience.
“Individual performances were good (on Monday). Our two spinners, Ben Reece and Hamad Arshad, bowled well in both games.
“Ben Parker batted very well in the second game. I guess it’s just, with the stop-start nature of the season we’ve had, about trying to find form and hopefully find rhythm.
“Hopefully three or four guys would have benefitted from that individually.
“The two players we bought in, Manelker de Silva and Adam Jones, have both settled in well and been a really good presence around the club.
“They’ve been positive additions and I’m positive they’ll come into some more good form.”
Sadler’s outfit travel to last season’s champions Swardeston on Saturday (11am).
