Cricket chairman Chris Payne has been the busiest man in the Drakes League this winter and Slaithwaite will have a completely new look for the Premiership campaign which starts on Saturday.
The overhaul at Hill Top includes the appointment of a new skipper in Chris Kilner and the arrival of Australian opening batsman Matthew Bremner from Fitzroy Doncaster in Melbourne.
A right-hander, Bremner has played over 100 matches in the Grade A Victoria Premier League and has experience of Yorkshire after being pro at Townville last year.
Bremner will bowl some medium pace as well and Payne is pleased with recruitment following a number of departures from the squad.
“Matthew has a really good pedigree and has come through the same channels as we got Nathan Freitag last year,” said Payne, who has brought in nine players in total.
“Townville needed another bowler, which is why he hasn’t gone back there, and we are delighted to have him here. He scored 700 runs at 30-odd last season and admits it was far from his best season, so he’s focused on doing much better this summer and that has to be good for us.”
Martin Lees is taking over behind the sticks and will have David Hales, newly signed from Almondbury Wesleyans, as one of the attack and, from the end of May, New Zealander Daniel Hill, who was at Shelley in 2011.
On the batting front, Slaithwaite have brought in Shabir Rashid from Holmfirth, Naseer Rehman from Hall Bower and Max Berry from Scholes.
Elland, meanwhile, have brought in Australian top-order bat and leg-spin bowler Robin Broom, who is from Perth but works in Leeds.
Paul Winrow has returned to Hullen Edge from Shelley and has been joined by Wajid Hussain from Hall Bower, Niall Lockley from Golcar and young Alec Jakeman from Honley.
Benji Birkhead has moved down the hill from Rastrick, while Siraj Sajid has made the move across from Delph & Dobcross.
The question most people have been asking is can anyone knock Hoylandswaine off top spot?
The vast majority of last season’s highly-successful team are back, including Zaf Patel alongside new overseas signing Kesrick Williams.
A 25-year-old opening bowler who plays first-class for Combined Campuses and Colleges in the West Indies, Williams also plays for Windward Islands and made his debut against England Lions in 2011.
To their top four of Alex Morris, Gharib Nawaz, SP Singh and Ryan Robinson, the Haigh Lane club have added Max Joice from Honley and will have Yasir Abbas at No6.
Skipper Richard Wilkinson, Ben Potter and keeper Alan Mynett follow them, so it’s a powerful line-up looking for success in five competitions.
Shepley – champions in 2013 and runners-up last year – will be aiming to challenge again, having signed Western Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Christian Smith.
The 21-year-old is from the Wanneroo Districts club which produced Mike Hussey and Mitchell Johnson and is on the brink of playing for the state side.
Smith will be keeping to opening-bowler signing from Guiseley, Nasir Jamal, who topped the Aire-Wharfe averages last summer, and a battery of spinners.
One of those is Auckland-based 19-year-old all-rounder Robert Boot, a middle order bat who will be off-spin back-up for leg-spinner Amar Rashid, off-break bowler Oli Davidson and left-armer Danny Wood.
Shelley have signed South African first-class player Shershan Naidoo.
The 25-year-old batsman and off-spinner has played 49 top-grade matches for Northerns in his home country.
Shelley have a new line-up following the departures of experienced all-rounder Bilal Khiljee, batsman Paul Winrow and wicketkeeper Martin Lees, recruiting opening batsman Abdul
Wahid from Slaithwaite, wicketkeeper Shahban Raheem from Sheffield United and University of Huddersfield student Tom Haytack, who is an opening bowler from Beverley CC.
Australian off-spinning all-rounder Aaron Crispe has joined much-changed Honley this season.
The 24-year-old plays with the Northcote club from Melbourne in the Victoria Premier competition and will be playing alongside fellow new recruits Tim Sykes (from Skelmanthorpe), Sam Denton and Joe McNamara from Holmfirth and Tim Taylor – namesake of the club’s current left-arm spinner – who has joined from Old Almondburians.
Back at Golcar is popular Australian all-rounder Tim Welsford, the now 32-year-old who had a successful season with the Swallow Lane club seven years ago – when they fell one win short of landing the Byrom Shield Premiership title.
Coach and captain of Melbourne club Carlton in the Victorian Premier, Welsford lines up alongside Alex Thomas (from the north east) and Mick Illingworth, who is back from Slaithwaite.
Joe Carter is back at Scholes with his Bay of Plenty teammate Pete Drysdale.
Carter, who has been playing first-class for Northern Districts this winter, won the Drakes batting prize with 1,222 runs at 55.55 in 2013.
Also back is former Joe Lumb batsman Tommy Boorman, who has spent the last two years playing in Australia and New Zealand, along with Harry Bryson (Skelmanthorpe), Jamie Clayton (Thongsbridge) and the Slaithwaite trio of Jack Bryson, Josh Langfield and David Longworth.
Barkisland have signed New Zealand Under 19 batsman Tim Seifert, a teammate of Scholes’ Carter at Northern Districts, to replace Aussie LJ Brown.
The rest of last season’s Barkisland squad remain in place, meaning a return for highly-influential leg spinner Chris Williams.
Broad Oak have added Kiwi all-rounder Henry Cooper following their promotion as Jedi Sports Championship title-holders.
The 21-year-old Cooper plays for Northern Districts A in New Zealand and is a middle-order batsman and off-spinner.
Lee Baxter skippers an Oak side including new arrivals Harlon Haye and batsman Harvey Booth (from Honley), batsman Dom Finn (Elland) and seam bowler James Pettinger.
Baxter is hoping for productive seasons from Sven Burluraux with the bat and Alex Slack with the ball.
Premiership debutants Moorlands have keeper Michael Rounding in charge and have signed Australian all-rounder Chris Lloyd as the overseas plus English-qualified St Kilda batsman Jared Maxwell, 21, from Melbourne.
No3 bat David Winn (Mirfield Parish Cavaliers), paceman Darrell Sykes (from Almondbury Wesleyans) and left-arm spinner Michael Padgett (Mirfield Parish) are also in the line-up.
Arron Lilley leads Delph & Dobcross after playing Sydney grade cricket with Blacktown District this winter and having been on Lancashire’s pre-season tour to Dubai and Sri Lanka.
The 23-year-old off-spin bowler and right hand bat takes the reins from Grant Jones, and leads a side including Wasim Qasim, who has signed from Elland to replace opening bowler Jamshad Ahmad. Delph have also drafted in Lancashire Under 19 opening batsman Chris Laker from Dukinfield and Jason Fish from Saddleworth.
New Zealander Tony Goodin will spearhead Skelmanthorpe’s attack.
The 26-year-old is a teammate of Scholes duo Carter and Drysdale at Bay of Plenty and has played first-class for Northern Districts.
Goodin will open the bowling with 60-wicket Tuseif Arshad, with skipper James Crossland providing back-up in the seam department.
Skelmanthorpe have lost the services of all-rounder Paul Cummins and opening bat Tim Sykes, but they have retained Irfan Amjad, Yaasar Imtiaz and spinner Josh Ingham as well as promoting Liam Fletcher and Shaun Alderson from the Seconds. Jordan Greaves has also re-signed.
Craig Fletcher is back at Kirkburton, who have just landed Pakistani batsman Mohammad Asif Hussain who plays first-class for Faisalaad and WPDA. He’s now 35 but has over 4,000 top-level runs to his name and will help fill the void left by the unavailability of Ibrar Latif.
Burton have also signed Nick Sharp from Lascelles Hall.
All club captains and coaches should note they need a DBS form (the old CRB check). League welfare officer Roger Peaker reports a number have still to complete and they should contact him on 07889 847055 as a matter of urgency.
