Toby Rice has his eyes set on success as the University of Gloucestershire’s cricket team travel to Edgbaston to compete in the BUCS National Trophy Final.
The team have had a positive year so far, after picking up the Cheltenham Indoor Cup in December. However, Rice is hungry for more as his side travel to Birmingham on Saturday as they aim to lift the national trophy.
“Honestly if you go to a National Trophy Final, you want to go and win the whole thing.” Rice says.
“I feel like as a team we need to put Gloucester on the map a little bit and obviously we are a small uni but we can compete with these other big teams like Exeter and we can actually go and do it.
“And then just enjoy ourselves when we are out on the pitch and make it a good weekend for us.”
To get to this stage, Rice’s side had to get through qualifying in Canterbury, where they got past London School of Economics, Westminster but fell to defeat against a strong Cardiff side in what Rice described as a “Great weekend.”
“The first two games were class. We literally performed the best we could and to the standards we know we can.“
Rice was overall delighted with their performance on the day and is feeling confident that his side can match the standards they set last weekend.
“If we continue to do that for the trophy this weekend then we will be right in it. It was just such a good weekend with the group over in Canterbury.”
During qualifying, Rice stepped into the role of captaining the side, in place of the absent first-team captain Ryan Kilmister. It was overall a challenge that Rice relished and learnt a great deal from.
“I loved it. On the pitch I’m always loud and always vocal so just being able to be that figurehead for the boys and keeping them going and making sure I get the best out of the rest of the team.
“I feel like I’ve done a decent job but it’s not just me, there’s been Justin [Murphy] and a couple of the others that have been helping me out.
“I’ve just learnt to back my decisions and use my knowledge of the game and to use the team’s knowledge to make the correct decision, to keep the energy levels high and try to manage players the best you can and I feel like I am starting to perfect it.”
The side are looking to improve on last year’s disappointment of just missing out on a semi-final spot at this stage. However, Rice is using his experience from the last indoor campaign and improving his game from it – to help the new players that have come in.
“The lads who left last year were superb in helping me settle into the team. Their knowledge was just on a different level and I think that has helped me improve my game massively.
“Not just technique or anything, just knowledge of the game and how to play it, especially indoors.
“It’s worked and I can relay that onto the new lads that have come in and make it the same sort of environment and use the same strategies as last year, it’s working well and has been really successful.“
