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“The lads are here for it, and want to prove a point to the rest of the country” UoG Cricket Club Captain Owen Parker speaks ahead of their finals trip to Edgbaston

The University of Gloucestershire’s cricket team has had unexpected success in their indoor cricket campaign this season.

The team currently sit mid table in their league (Cheltenham Division One), and have been successful in the cup having won the Display Refrigeration Ltd Cheltenham Indoor Cricket Cup by beating Apperley CC in the final.

The team recently have been focusing on their BUCS Indoor campaign and have made it to the National Trophy finals held at Edgbaston February 1.

Owen Parker, photo by Max Tomlinson

Club captain Owen Parker discussed the team’s recent indoor success, and looked ahead to this weekend’s final.

“The success doesn’t come as a surprise to me, the lads have shown this new level at training and have been putting the work in.

“Our success at winning the cup (Display Refrigeration Ltd Cheltenham Indoor Cricket Cup) only proves that we should feel confident at competing on a national level.”

Display Refrigeration Ltd Cheltenham Indoor Cricket Cup post win photo

The BUCS Indoor season has allowed the team to travel around the country, but Parker doesn’t believe the travelling has had a negative impact on the team.

“The travelling has been a blessing in disguise, it’s made the team come together a lot of more.

“We’ve recently travelled to Canterbury and had to stay the night which allowed the team to have more time together socially which prepared us for the following day.

As well, with these longer trips we took other members of the club as supporters which added to the positive atmosphere.”

Looking ahead to Edgbaston this Saturday, Parker has a lot of confidence within his squad: “the team is looking good, we’ve been put in the harder group I’d say” (Exeter 1st, Nottingham Trent 1st and Sheffield Uni 1st).

“However the lads are here for it, we’ve had people in this completion in previous years. But this years we want to prove a point to the rest of the country and win it all.”

UoG wicket at previous appearance in the competition (Against Durham 2nd)

This indoor season has seen a lot of variation of the lineup due to people not being available or people not putting in the effort.

This is what Parker had to say about what he looks for when choosing his lineup: “As club captain I’ve always been an advocate for the people who train will be given more playing time. And those who put effort in should be given the chances to play.

“However, in situations like this, some people are better then others, and as awful as that is to say it needs to be taken into account if we want to be competitive this weekend.

“So the six starters and two reserve we choose will be those who are deserving but also the most capable of getting the job done.”

Parker then shared the chosen eight players picked, as an exclusive to ParkLife Sport. The team lineup is as follows: Toby Rice (C), Jack Brown, Adam Herrington, Ryan Kilminster, Justin Murphy, Dan Smith (WK), Alex Tierney, Richard Wilson.

Parker’s final remarks were focused on looking beyond this weekend and speaking on the riot of the club, “whatever the outcome is this weekend the lads should be proud of themselves and we need to keep this momentum going into the outdoor season, and I hope this culture rubs off on those players who didn’t get any indoor match time so they’re ready for their chance when it comes.”

Follow the results of this weekends competition and all of their upcoming fixtures on their social media and their play cricket account.

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