Pete Drysdale is enjoying being back in Huddersfield and determined to make a mark with Scholes.

The 25-year-old Kiwi still has many friends at Shelley, where he spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons, and he is already slotting in nicely at Chapelgate.

But the captain and opening bat of the Mount Maunganui club, who represents the Bay of Plenty, feels he has unfinished business in the Drakes ranks and he’d love to put that right this summer.

A close friend of Joe Carter, who was at Scholes last season and has since gone on to make a first-class breakthrough with Northern Districts in New Zealand, Drysdale explained: “The people at Scholes have been very welcoming and very supportive and that’s allowed me to settle straight away and get on with my cricket.

“I already knew about the league, obviously, and I’d played at Scholes and knew what a beautiful ground it was, but Joe was able to fill me in on the people and he couldn’t speak highly enough of them, both in the team and behind the scenes.

“Having been here before, I just want to see how good I can be and 1,000 runs would mean I could go back home reasonably happy. I didn’t quite make it at Shelley, but I’ve told Joe I’ll be trying to better his mark from last season!”

That would be some going as Carter piled up 1,222 runs, second only to Golcar ace Steve Whitwam, but Drysdale feels in good form and hasn’t given up hope of some county involvement this summer – he was close to a first-class breakthrough back home.

“I had a strong season personally with Mount Maunganui, who are the rival club to Joe’s Otumoetai Cadets, and we were just one game away from making the top six in New Zealand,” explained Drysdale, who enjoyed a season with Spondon in Derbyshire last year.

“It wasn’t such a good year for Bay of Plenty, where we previously won everything and were basically the best minor county in the country, but we finished the season strongly and that will set us up for another challenge next time.”

Drysdale – brother of Olympic gold medal single skulls rowing champion Mahe Drysdale – is keen to get involved in as much coaching as possible while he’s here.

“I think it’s only right you should help out the clubs who bring you over,” he said.

“First and foremost you want to win cricket matches, but from my point of view I want to put more back into a club. I don’t just want to be someone who comes and takes, I want to put back in by helping not only the juniors but the guys I play with.

“I do want to play first-class cricket, and that’s something I’m still working towards, but I think we all have a responsibility to cricket to pass on what we know to the next generations and see how far the game can go.”

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