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Hatherley and Reddings look to new signings to make a big impact

All Areas > Sport > Cricket

Author: Roger Jackson, Posted: Friday, 26th April 2019, 09:00

Nipuna Gamage Nipuna Gamage

New signing Nipuna Gamage will spearhead Hatherley and Reddings’ drive for honours this season.

The 23-year-old from Sri Lanka, who is primarily a batsman but can also bowl off-spin, will be one of the main men as the club chase promotion from the Gloucestershire Division of the West of England Premier League in 2019.

Gamage has, in fact, already played one game for Hatherley and the club’s supporters will be pleased to hear that he has a 100 per cent winning record.

“We went on a club tour to Sri Lanka in October,” said cricket chairman Jake Nickell. “We played three games and the one we won was when he played.

“He didn’t get any runs – he got fired lbw – but he bowled well.”

Hatherley’s tour coincided with England’s one-day series in Sri Lanka and although Gamage didn’t get any runs on his Hatherley ‘debut’, Nickell is confident that they have got themselves a seriously good cricketer.

“He’s got a 50 in first class T20 in Sri Lanka and averaged 30 in their one-day competition,” said Nickell of the left-handed bat who bowls right-arm.

The plan is for him to bat at three which means he is likely to spend quite a lot of time out in the middle with Tom Hage, a top player who has returned to the club after a year with Dumbleton.

And there is certainly going to be a bit of a new look to Hatherley this season because seam bowler Callum Stewart, whose dad Rich is the club’s vice-chairman, is available to play in 2019.

“He’s played for Somerset 2nds and is going to play this summer,” added Nickell. “He spends six months of the year in Australia.”

The club have also signed wicketkeeper/batsman Dan Brabham, a former University of Gloucestershire student who has played Premier League cricket in Kent, and quick bowler Dan Jones has returned to the club after about five years playing for Bristol, so it is no wonder that head coach Gareth Dawson is looking forward to the new campaign with optimism.

And the challenge for the 1st XI this season is quite simple – to win promotion back to Gloucestershire/Wiltshire Premier Two.

They spent a year at that level in 2017 and Dawson, who is the older brother of Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson, said: “We’re trying to move forward. The next step is to try to get promoted, that’s definitely the aim. Last year we were a bit inconsistent.”

That was Dawson’s first season as head coach – he’d previously played a number of games for them just as a top-order batsman – and he’s excited about the coming campaign.

“We want to be up there with Cheltenham and Frocester,” added Dawson. “We’ve got a nice ground, the level we play at is good, there is a good atmosphere at the club and there is a growing junior section.”

And the 42-year-old Dawson, who lives in Hardwicke, knows a good club when he sees one because he has been working full-time in cricket for a good number of years.

His day job is working for the Gloucestershire Cricket Board promoting England’s number one sport around the county and before that he enjoyed spells working as a coach in both the Isle of Man, where he also played, and Gibraltar.

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Gareth Dawson

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