WILL Eason believes the changes he's had to make to his game Down Under will benefit himself and Horspath when he returns to captain the side this season. Speaking from Mandurah, near Perth, where he is playing A Grade cricket for Halls Head CC in the Peel Cricket Association, Will told of how he has had to adapt his bowling and batting to enjoy success. Will, who was recently re-elected as Horspath skipper for a fifth successive year at a well-attended players' meeting in the clubroom, has been regularly among the wickets in Western Australia's Wyllie Cup competition and has also hit two unbeaten half-centuries. He said: "I have had to change my game quite a lot because back home my game with the ball is to try and swing it, and with the bat to adapt to what role the team needs. "Out here I have bowled first change most weeks. I have not had the new ball yet, but the Kookaburras swing only for the first five overs and then that's it. I have not been able to swing the ball - just moved it a bit, but nothing like back home. "So I have had to find new skills, which is quite a good challenge. I see myself as quite an experienced player, but I've almost had to go back to the training ground and find new ways of doing things. "I have enjoyed that challenge. It is not something I anticipated, but it has been good for me and it will help me when I get back home because I won't be one-dimensional with the ball. "I will be able to adapt to different pitches back home. If it's not swinging I've looked to someone else to bowl, but now I can go to a different side of my game which I've used over here. "It's the same with the bat. I tend to wait for one outside off stump and whack it through cover. You don't tend to get too many to work through cover out here, so I have worked really hard on my legside game and I've found new scoring areas." Will's batting work reaped reward when he hit an unbeaten 53 in an emphatic home win over White Knights Baldivis. Having bowled out White Knights for 125, Halls Head had already passed their opponents' total, but with the match continuing with points still up for grabs, Will came to the wicket and with fellow Englishman Sam Pendlebury shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 109 as they closed on 253-4. Reflecting on his batting, Will said: "It had been frustrating. I'd had a few starts and not gone on and got a decent score. "It was important to carry on batting and make sure they didn't get any points from us losing wickets, so I was mindful of that." And he went to his half-century in style with six fours in an over at the end of the innings. "I have never done that before," said Will of his boundary blitz. "We were well past the total and there was an opportunity with the field spread to try and cash in and get a few extra points by hitting a few boundaries. "After I'd hit the first three or four I thought I will never do this again, so I will give it a whack. There were three fours on the offside and three on legside, so they were pretty much all around the ground. "I think it was the penultimate over and I managed to bring up the fifty." Will's second half-century came last weekend with an unbeaten 57 in a defeat away to Shoalwater Bay. He shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 148 with Chris Phelps as Halls Head recovered from 60-4 to make 208-4, before their hosts replied with 227-7, Will taking 1-25 from ten overs. With five games remaining, Halls Head stand seventh in the table as they chase a top-four finish to be involved in the end-of-season finals. "The way it works out here is that it's all about finishing in the top four, which is everyone's aim," explained Will. "We have quite a hard run-in for the rest of the season and play the sides around us. "It is not about finishing top, it's all about finishing in the top four and then it's like finals for the top four with semi-finals and a final - a bit like in American Football. "The club has been really successful in past years - not recent years so much - so we are trying to get into that." And when his Australian adventure comes to an end, Will's focus will return to leading Horspath in another Homes Counties Premier League campaign. "Obviously I love captaining the club and am really proud of it," he added. "Hopefully we will have a good season in 2018."
Posted by: Russ
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