Eastern Cricket Association: Northamptonshire’s Nathan Buck to boost Surrey Hill’s playing stocks

Two handy quicks from England, one a teammate of Joe Root and Ben Stokes in the under-19 World Cup, are set to roll the arm over for Surrey Hills in the ECA’s Dunstan Shield.

Nathan Buck during a stint playing grade cricket in Sydney for Manly.

It’s been 25 years since Surrey Hills last tasted First XI premiership success in the Eastern Cricket Association and, for a lot of those summers, it was fighting to avoid relegation from the top flight.

But with the signing of a couple of Northamptonshire quicks, the appointment of an experienced coaching panel and with the encouraging signs shown late last season, the coming Dunstan Shield summer could be starting to heat up for the club.

Surrey has boosted its playing stocks with a pair of quick bowlers, who are more than handy with the bat, coming on board from English county club Northamptonshire.

Nathan Buck, a full-time professional cricketer has 10 years First Class experience in the county system at Leicestershire, Lancashire and Northamptonshire, his 90+ First Class games netting in excess of 250 wickets and 1300 runs.

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Nathan Buck has taken more than 250 First Class wickets

Always a promising quick in his junior days, Buck was selected for the English under-17 and under-19 sides and was England’s leading wicket-taker at the 2010 under-19 World Cup where he played alongside current England skipper Joe Root and Headingley miracle man Ben Stokes.

“I think he will do pretty well if he can get used to the conditions and the ball,” Surrey Hills president Malcolm Campbell said. “Just having his experience of that (level of cricket) around will be great for the other bowlers.”

Another Northants quick who can bat, Liam Grey, will return to the club after playing there in 2016/17 and winning Surrey Hills highest honour, the Oliver Medal.

Off the field, the club has appointed an experienced coaching panel. David Bell, a former Premier Cricket player and longtime coach at North Dandenong, has been named head coach with support from Chris Stacey as assistant-coach. Simon Helmot, current high performance coach for Bangladesh and the inaugural coach of the Melbourne Renegades, will act as a coaching consultant.

Surrey Hills started to make some big steps forward last summer under first-year skipper Nick Giofre. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Campbell said the past three years had been particularly difficult with the First XI in a rebuilding phase after the loss of more than half the side to retirements and interstate moves.

But late last summer, things began to turn and, under first-year captain Nick Giofre, Surrey Hills won its final two games — including knocking over a finals-bound Mont Albert in the local derby.

“He’s only had one year as skipper,” Campbell said of Giofre. “But he’s learning, learning very fast.

“We lost four games in the last over (of the day) through a combination of not being able to win or not believing they can win.”

While the Surrey president stopped short of predicting finals, he was confident that the club’s young, developing First XI had turned the corner.

“Our firsts started (pre-season) a month earlier than ever before and we've had more numbers than we’ve ever had,” he said.

“I’m really big on the guys having fun and enjoying their cricket. It’s no fun going out to bat when you’re thinking about relegation all the time.”