Wanstead & Snaresbrook captain Joe Ellis-Grewal insists opponents Hornchurch will be one of the favourites to win the Hamro Foundation Essex League Premier Division.

The Herons begin the new campaign at home to Hornchurch as they bid to defend their title although they face one of their main rivals up first on Saturday.

“It’s one of those games that you always look out for and to be honest it would have been nice to play them a few weeks down the line when we’ve played a bit more cricket,” the skipper said.

“They’re a strong team, it’s always a good game, and they’ll be one of the favourites to win the league this year so we’ll enjoy it.

“We’ve not even played a game at home yet, so we’re looking forward to that, and putting in a good solid performance which we hope will be good enough to win.”

The Herons have managed to retain all of their players from last season and even brought Arfan Akram back to Overton Drive.

“We’ve kept all the same guys together and we’ve also got Arfan back this year. He’s been missing a little while and he’s only batted once so far where he scored 100 so it’s nice to have a youngster with his quality back playing again!

Romford Recorder: Arfan Akram in batting action for Wanstead during Wanstead and Snaresbrook CC vs Brentwood CC, Shepherd Neame Essex League Cricket at Overton Drive on 13th July 2019Arfan Akram in batting action for Wanstead during Wanstead and Snaresbrook CC vs Brentwood CC, Shepherd Neame Essex League Cricket at Overton Drive on 13th July 2019 (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

“We’ve got a real nice blend with some older and experienced guys like myself then a few younger superstars that are coming through.

“A couple of them have just got Essex contracts so it’ll be great to have them available on Saturdays, winning games for us.”

More importantly Wanstead are just keen to get back in action and play out a full season.

“Even though it was a short season (last year), it was a good one, and it’s been a long time since we played,” added Ellis-Grewal.

We’ve not been able to train indoors or do anything like that whereas normally we would have a nice build-up from January.

“We’ve had a couple of League Cup games that we’ve played well in and we’ve been training hard so we're now looking forward to what should be a full and relatively normal season.

“No one knows what is going to happen later on down the line, but things look pretty good now, so we’re looking forward to playing one-dayers and the all-day format, the T20 and the National competitions as well.”