ANDREW Monk,  Valley End’s director of cricket and vice-chairman, believes the 1st XI are in a very strong position after a fine start to their AJ Sports Surrey Championship campaign.

Having finished fifth in 1st XI Division One last year, Valley currently sit second in the table.

Monk told the News & Mail: “Traditionally we’ve found we’ve had a very good second half of the season but not done enough in the first half to be really pushing for promotion, so we’ve got a couple of initiatives in place. 

“We’ve been able to get our students back from university. 

“They’ve committed to playing league cricket and we’ve helped them with the travel, etc. 

“And we’ve bought in Jamie Stephens. We were very lucky he’s joined us. He’s a local maths teacher who’s moved to the area and he’s captained Devon. 

“In a recent match he took seven wickets. He’s hit the floor running. 

“So as they say in football, we’ll take each game as it comes – but we’ve put ourselves in a very strong position.”

Monk hopes the first XI, who are skippered by Tom Nevin, can clinch promotion. 

He said: “That’s been our aim. We came up with a five-year plan, and getting into the 1st XI Premier Division is definitely what we want. 

“But not just getting in there – we want to stay there. We want to become an established Premier club, and that’s very difficult to do. 

“We’d come up against the likes of Reigate Priory, Wimbledon and Esher, clubs with huge budgets who are very strong, established cricket clubs, and that’s what we aspire to. 

“We don’t just want to get into the Premier; we want to be able to more than hold our own, stay there and challenge.

“So it’s about identifying and developing those players who have first-team potential and giving them the opportunities to impress. That’s what we’re trying to do.

“We’re very aware we’ve got a lot of youth cricketers in the club who need to have a clear pathway into senior cricket, and we’ve made it clear how they go about doing it. 

“There are various options available. 

“We’ve got two sides playing in the Surrey Trust League and we’ve got our Sunday Social team. 

“And we field a sixth XI friendly Saturday side every other week in the summer holidays when we’ve got the availability. 

“But recently we had nine under-15s playing league cricket in the fifth, fourth, third and first XIs, so we’re trying to give them every opportunity.”

And of the Sunday Social XI, their skipper Ed Walters – who is also captain of the Saturday fifth XI – said: “Valley End have been brilliant for me because they’ve given me the opportunity to get involved. 

“I’m passionate about making sure people have opportunities at fifth-team level and with the Sunday Social XI.

“On the Sundays, I like to play declaration games. That means all results are available – win, lose, draw or tie. I like a high-scoring draw. 

“Even though I skipper the fifth XI, I’m not that interested in 40-over matches because they can be over in the first hour if one team’s too dominant.

“I believe that on Sundays, the onus is on both captains to make sure that most people get a good game and everyone leaves happy. 

“The trouble in most games of competitive cricket is one person has a really good game, two or three are fairly happy, three or four are a bit disappointed and one goes home really disgruntled. If you can avoid that, it’s great – and that’s what we look to do on Sundays.

“If people want to have a bowl, we’ll get them a bowl. If people want to bat, we’ll let them have a bat. If we lose, we lose. As long as we’ve had a good tea and everyone’s had a decent game, I’ll be happy.” 

Sixty-five-year-old Austen Reedman has been with the club for more than 30 years and played in all their adult teams.

Reflecting on Sunday cricket with Valley End, he said: “It’s a social game, it’s friendly and everyone gets a chance. 

“Some weeks you bat, some weeks you bowl and some weeks you don’t do anything. 

“It just depends how the game develops. But it’s all about enjoyment on a Sunday.”

Asked what advice he would give a cricketer looking to prolong his playing career, Reedman said: “Just keep playing. Once you give it up, it’s hard to come back. 

“It doesn’t have to be every week but if you can keep a connection with a club, it’s brilliant.”

Another of Walters’ players is 18-year-old Tom Pilkington, who joined the club in 2018.

He said: “I’m big into the coaching side of things, so for me it’s about bringing up those younger people and getting them to the level I play at and beyond – that’s the plan. 

“I’ve got quite a few connections to the guys who are doing the coaching here. 

“I coach every Thursday, Friday and a bit of Tuesdays and maybe Sundays as well.

“It’s all about bringing up those younger people and having a good time.”

Asked if any of the children he has coached have played in the senior teams yet, he said: “We had two under-14s playing recently in the fifth XI, which is a great starting point for their development.

“It’s nice seeing that some of the conversations we have on a Friday night, such as building partnerships, are being played out.” 

And on whether his ultimate goal is to coach professionally, Pilkington said: “Absolutely. I would love to go into international coaching if I could and I aspire to make a difference.”