SOMERSET all rounder Josh Thomas is the new first team captain at Taunton St Andrews Cricket Club for the new season which is due to start in earnest the first weekend in May. 

The 19-year-old said: “It makes me feel really proud to be made the captain of Taunton St Andrews where I have played all my life. It’s pretty special to me and although I know its going to be a hard job I’m really looking forward to it.

“The likes of James and Thomas Rew, my brother George and myself we have all grown up playing together at the club so we have got quite a young squad.

Josh will be assisted in his role by his vice captain Lloyd Alley, himself a former skipper who has been a Saints regular for many years.

“To have someone like Lloyd who is very knowledgeable in the sport and knows what he is doing as vice captain is going to be a huge help to me for sure.”

This year the Saints will be joined by Cam Harding from Clevedon a proven run scorer at this level.

“I watched Cam in the nets and he is going to be a big asset to the team. His stats show that he has scored a lot of runs in WEPL Prem League so he is going to be a huge help.”

Sadly the weather hasn’t been very helpful and Saints have had to cancel their first two warm up games.

“Hopefully we will be able to at least to get to play  against our local rivals Taunton Deane for the Brice Nelson Trophy over the last weekend of April, before we travel to newly promoted in the league opener on May4th- which is a long trip!

Vice captain Lloyd Alley said: “Everyone is delighted to see Josh taking over the captaincy this year and I am very happy to work with him as his vice captain. He has been around the club for a long time and everyone knows him and respects him both as a person and a cricketer, and he has proved himself with both bat and ball.

“Josh is keen to be expansive and will put his own spin on things and his brother George is keen to help which will also be good.

“I will be helping Josh in anyway that I can and will be involved with the selection side of things and the off field stuff because as a pro he is not likely to have a huge amount of time.

The vice captain went on: “Training has been very good this year, in fact we have probably had as many as we have ever had along to the first four weeks of training, and we have made some good new signings. Going into the season we are probably going to be as strong as have ever been over the last few years.”