Harefield skipper Stephen Croft has talked about his side’s upcoming campaign as Sean Solia has joined as their overseas player.
The 2024 season sees Croft take charge of The Hares for his third campaign having got them promoted as Division Two Champions in 2022, but returning back following relegation in 2023.
Croft, who has a young side who have stuck together the past few years, believes the club are making positive steps.
Overall, for the club it was positive, the 2s and 3s were one win away from promotion, the Sunday XI, which had lots of juniors, got promoted in their league, and of the 3 junior teams, 2 won their divisions, which is great. Unfortunately, the 1s went down, but playing in the top league was good experience.
Having had a taste of the top level, both Croft and his team are keen to bounce back straight away and have been working hard over the winter to make this happen.
The preparation has been similar as for most years, we have had weekly nets for both senior and junior teams every week since the end of January. Several guys having been playing abroad which is great experience for them.
The club were keen to replace Nic Kelly, their 2023 overseas, with a player of a similar calibre. Kelly has spent the summer in the southern hemisphere captaining Wellington in New Zealand.
The Hares, under Croft, director of Cricket Doug King and their committee, have been proactive in using their contacts on the other side of the world.
Croft told Sports Shots.
Just one signing confirmed so far this winter and that’s the overseas signing of Sean Solia. Sean is an excellent all-round cricketer with a good first-class record. We are very fortunate to have good connections in New Zealand which enabled us to sign a player of this quality.
Solia has represented Samoa internationally and has been playing domestic cricket for Auckland since 2016. As a left-handed batsman and right-arm medium bowler, Solia made his first-class debut for Auckland against Canterbury in November 2016 during the 2016–17 Plunket Shield season. He also made his Twenty20 debut in December 2016 and his List A debut in January 2017, where he scored an impressive 152 runs.
Solia’s international career includes being part of Samoa’s squad for the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 East Asia-Pacific Qualifier tournament. In Samoa’s opening match of the qualifier against Papua New Guinea, he was the top scorer for his team with 39 runs and ended up as the joint-leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
The new Hare caught the eye of selectors, who picked him when New Zealand ‘A’ hosted the touring West Indian side in November 2020.
In 2022, Solia was Datchet’s overseas for their Home Counties Premier League, Division One campaign.
Croft will be looking for his younger players to learn from their experienced incoming Kiwi.
Ollie Stalder has been in the 1s for the last 4 years, he is still only 19/20 and has lots of potential. He has been working hard this winter and I think he will see this rewarded with some consistent performances. Another player who has improved a lot of the last year with the bat is Qasim Khan. He mainly played in the 3s last year but if he keeps on developing with the bat as he has done, he won’t be far from playing the 1s.
The Hares skipper is looking for his side to be challenging to go straight back up.
As a 1st team we will be looking to compete at the top end of the table. We have the same core group of players that got us promoted in 2022, plus the addition of Sean should help balance the side out.
