CRICKETERS representing the town of Saltash in the Cornwall Cricket League will play under a new name for the 2025 season.

Saltash St Stephens, who have risen up the leagues in recent seasons to become an established Division Three East outfit, will now be known as just Saltash Cricket Club.

Up until the end of the 2020 season, the town had two clubs that played in the Cornwall Cricket League, St Stephens and Saltash Town, the latter who played at Landulph.

However, Town joined forces with Callington Cricket Club before the start of the 2021 campaign, and with the St Stephens part causing problems, they have made a bold move.

Reflecting on the decision, new chairman Shayn Rencher said: “There are a couple of reasons why we’ve changed.

“The first is we don’t want people getting confused with the St Stephen down near St Austell as we’ve had plenty of issues with people going to the wrong ground and so on.

“But the main part is to have our own identity as we’re now the only club in Saltash, and this is a move which will help us move forward on the pitch and with future planning going forward.”

The club, who hope to develop their Chapel Field ground in the coming years, also held their presentation night and annual general meeting recently.

First up was the presentation, held at the club’s main sponsors, the Ploughboy Inn, on October 12.

On the field was a relatively successful campaign for ‘the Saints’ as the firsts were solidly in mid-table in a very close-run Division Three East, enough to stay out of the dreaded bottom four which would have seen them demoted due to the league restructure to ten-team divisions, while the seconds also had plenty of good days out in Division Five.

With just the top four staying in the new Division Five, the Seconds are set to be in Six and will hope to win more than they lose.

The presentation saw the following players win prizes, while all-rounder Alex Johnson was given a special award having become the fourth member of the club to represent the county in the Cornwall Over 50s second team.

The winners were as follows: First Team: Batsman – Simon Yeo; Bowler – Matt Petherbridge; Second Team: Batsman – Duncan Nobes; Bowler – James Matthews; Most Improved – Callum Iles-Wright; Clubman – Shayn Rencher.

Awards were also handed out for stellar performances with bat and ball.

With the bat, Duncan Nobes (2), Huw Williams, Ben Lindsay and Curtis Barlow all reached the magical three figures, while left-arm spinner Matt Petherbridge (2) and swing bowler Dan Cook enjoyed five-wicket hauls, Petherbridge’s 6-17 against Newquay Seconds the best of the season.

November 4 was the night for the AGM, again at the Ploughboy, and saw outgoing second team captain Rencher take over from the long-serving Neill Kelliher as chairman.

The rest of the roles, bar James Blackmore replacing Rencher as second team skipper, stayed the same, although the club have appointed Huw Williams as it’s first-ever youth director of cricket and will oversee the Saints’ All Stars and Dynamos programmes and Under 10s and 13s teams.

Reflecting on his appointment and the club’s plans going forward, Rencher said: “For us it’s about the continued progression of the club.

“We’ve gone from one team in Division Seven East when I first joined a few years ago to now having two well-established teams, and we’re now at the point where we can’t really progress without some decisions being made.

“We’d like to future-proof the club, bring some youth onto the committee and see some fresh ideas.”