Adam Sercombe, the vice-captain of the University of Gloucestershire’s cricket team, believes the team can “go and win the BUCS outdoor league this season.”
After a successful indoor cricket campaign over the winter months, the university’s first team are preparing for the upcoming BUCS outdoor league, which starts in May.
Sercombe has high hopes for the upcoming summer season, with the vice-captain believing that winning the outdoor league is “achievable this year.”
“We want to go and win the BUCS league. That’s something we’ve never done in recent times, so it would be great to go out and win the league.
“Especially with the team we have this year, we’ve got such a strong squad and a sense of togetherness this year, so it’s possible to take the top spot.”
After a third-place finish in the BUCS outdoor league last year, taking first place in the league would be a fantastic achievement for the team and its players.
A successful BUCS indoor season meant the team were involved in the BUCS Men’s Trophy Finals at the Leicester Sports Centre.
It capped off a fine indoor season, with their first game against Keele University being a ten-run victory. However, they had close losses in their next two games against Cardiff Metropolitan University and Durham University, with the latter being a final-over defeat.
However, preparations for this vital period were hindered by the cancellation of their varsity fixture, a game scheduled to take place in the month of March.
Sercombe spoke about this cancellation, saying that the fact the game was called off “wasn’t a big surprise.”
“With how things have been going, it’s such a tricky sport to try and fit in with it being played in May last year and then completely out of the main varsity week.
“So yeah, I wasn’t surprised that it was called off, but it is disappointing that we can’t go out there and try to defend our title.”
The University of Gloucestershire won last year’s varsity grudge match against the University of Worcester in what was one of their biggest results last year, with Sercombe taking the final and game-winning wicket that sealed the victory by 28 runs.
“The preparation for the outdoor league has moved forward by six weeks,” Sercombe stated.
“We’d usually be prepping for March and varsity, but because of the cancellation, we’re now looking at playing in May.
“So there’s been a lot of a change this year, especially with the indoor league lasting a bit longer than usual as well. So it would be nice to go straight into the outdoor league, but we have an extra few weeks of preparation for the outdoor league ahead of us.”
