With less than a week until the start of the season, now seems as a good time as any to look forward at the next 22 weeks and see what may lie in store for our sides.

Just like the weather forecast, which currently has our home sides playing in 9 degrees and a 16mph North-Easterly wind on Saturday, I make no promises on the accuracy of any predictions contained in the rest of this article. I will review these at the end of the season though, just to see how badly wrong I was.

1st Team
A successful 2007 saw our firsts finishing second in the league, losing top spot in the final game of the season. Our sympathetic chairman put this down to being bowled out for 90 on the opening weekend at Chorley St James although other theories do exist. Certainly we will be looking to go one better this year to take the title, and with the changes made to the Sandhurst Shield there’s every chance we will be able to do the double. An ambitious target perhaps, given our opposition in the first round is Mawdesley, but certainly possible.

2nd Team
2007 saw a solid league performance in Chris Naish’s first season as captain and this team should be looking for promotion into division 2 as their aim for this season. The raw talent and team spirit is certainly there and the experience gained last season by the many young players should see them closing out games more regularly. Anything other than a repeat of their Hampson Cup winning performance would disappoint and although we must remember that you cannot win the cup every year, they have every chance of lifting the trophy again in 2008.

3rd Team
More modest goals for the thirds. Having struggled for the last few seasons, new captain Paul Marshall will want to see a few wins this year. There is enough depth available throughout the club to produce a side that, on their day, is capable of competing with anyone in the division. Not finishing bottom may seem a small goal compared to the two cup wins, a league title and a promotion predicted above, but this would be a huge step forward for this side. Encouraging performances were happening nearly every game last season, and they are long overdue a day when a bit of luck will combine with one or two strong players and produce a deserved win.

Juniors
Unfortunately there is no under 18s cricket this season at Tarleton, but with sides at under 11s, under 13s and under 15s there is still plenty of junior cricket to look forward to. Some success and strong performances would be the goal for all these sides. Hopefully the weather will be kinder this season and we will get to see plenty of cricket from all sides at the club.

Keep up to date with everything that happens at the club through the website, which I will be attempting to keep far more up to date than last season. If you have anything you want adding to the site, email it to webmaster@tarletoncc.com.

Good luck all, and let’s make 2008 our best season yet.

Turns out I didn't read the cup fixtures for the firsts properly so I'd like to retract my call of 'cup win'.

Of course, anything is still possible. The fact that teams not in our league are still playing in our cup shows that.