Skipper hails Shrewsbury for bouncing straight back

Evans, educated at Shrewsbury School and who also represents Shropshire, completed his second year as skipper of the London Road outfit last weekend – which ended with him lifting the division two trophy.

The club were relegated from division one last summer, and their ambition was to return to the top level of amateur cricket at the first time of asking.

It was a tough battle with Harborne, who pushed them all the way, but after the home win against Coventry and North Warwickshire, they were crowned champions.

"It was never going to be easy," Evans said, reflecting on the summer.

"It was a shame to drop down, but going straight back up with 400 points and an unbeaten season at home with a fairly similar side to what we had last year, is a fabulous achievement for the club.

"We have come up against multiple contract players this year, and that is a testament to the group.

"We have been a young side throughout, with lots of us under the age of 23, but we have been able to mix that in with a couple of experienced players like Will Parton and Matt Swift.

"So it has been a good balance, and that has been at the forefront of our success."

And Evans says that with the way their side has changed over the last few seasons, they adopted an 'ultra-aggressive' style with the bat, which helped them to get big scores in games and put their opponents under pressure.

"With the bat, we have been ultra-aggressive in a sense," Evans continued. "There has been a bit of a fearless approach, and we have the luxury of having the Shropshire County opening pair of George Hargrave and Pete Clark who have both gone past 700 runs for the season.

"That gives the middle order a bit of freedom to come in and push us on.

"With the ball, without having our contracted players - who are mostly seamers - it has been a chance for others to step up with the new ball.

"The success through the middle the spin group has had, with myself and Clarky getting 76 wickets between us for the season, and Rodri Evans has been a real help second half of the campaign.

"I think we have got the balance right. We cruised to a few victories at the start of the season, but there has been a lot of close battles.

"We have found ways to win whereas in previous years we had not done that.

"We have managed to win a lot of tosses, and we have batted first, piled some runs on and then defended with the ball."