WERRINGTON first team captain Nick Lawson admits it will be a ‘transitional year’ at Ladycross as they prepare for their ECB Cornwall Premier League curtain-raiser at St Just on Saturday (1pm).

The four-time champions — winners in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018 — saw several big-name players depart just weeks before their Tribute T20 Kernow Crash campaign got underway on April 17.

Former skipper Paul Smith decided to play in Birmingham where he lives, while county players Matt Robins and Tom Dinnis departed for Wadebridge and Penzance respectively.

On top of that, ex-Cornwall opening bowler Sam Hockin rejoined hometown club Bude while county spinner Andrew Libby went back to St Austell without ever making an appearance.

The T20 competition which took up the first four Saturdays saw Werrington win only one of their six games against Callington, St Austell, Truro before the final double-header at home to Camborne last weekend was washed out.

However it has given people the chance to step up alongside the established quartet of Adam Hodgson, Ben Smeeth, Mark Gribble and Lawson.

Although there have been some excellent individual performances, four of the five defeats were heavy ones, and Lawson is eager to press on.

He said: “T20 cricket is not our strongest suit so we’re looking forward to getting going with the 50-over stuff on Saturday.

“We’ve had a few positives with the excellent batting of Adam Hodgson. And Dan Barnard, who has been opening for us, has proved he can score crucial runs for us in the league.

“I’ve been impressed with John Moon and Toby Ward while Jason Seldon has really stepped up since coming from Tintagel and really came into his own at Truro.

“Also with Dan Barnard’s batting performances in the last couple of weeks, he could really play a pivotal role for us at seven or eight.

“Where we have really struggled is to take early wickets with the pink ball which we know we’ll have to rectify if we’re going to compete in games, but hopefully when we return to the red ball, we can do that.”

It remains to be seen who will be selected for the long trip to West Cornwall, but there are plenty of options to choose from, especially with the second team enjoying a superb start to the season in County One.

They beat Gorran, St Erme and St Austell seconds in their first three games before last Saturday’s trip to Beacon fell foul of the weather.

However a trip to Cape Cornwall Road is a daunting task. Since the inception of the Premier League in 2001, St Just have won it eight times including six successive titles from 2004 to 2009.

Although the vast majority of those players are long gone, the likes of Neil Curnow and skipper Gareth May remain, while this year they have brought in Somerset leg-spinner Max Waller as their professional and acquired the services of Sri Lankan left-arm orthodox bowler Chamikara Edirisinghe.

Lawson knows it will be a tough league.

He said: “There’ve been some very good signings made by a few clubs. St Just have signed well, Camborne will be quite strong if all of their new players play, Penzance will be strong as usual and Callington have done some good winter business as well, and have a very good squad.

“Cape Cornwall is always a tough place to go. Even though they’re perhaps not as good as they used to be, their two spinners are excellent, and some of their older heads still know what it takes to win games at Premier League level. But we’ll go down there and give it our best shot.”

Pick up this week’s Post to read more on Werrington ahead of the 2021 season.