Villagers bidding to bounce back

They had retained Indian professional Mansing Nigade who will hope to rediscover the form he showed towards the end of last season. The loss of Bruce Topping to Lurgan and retirement of David Marshall had left some holes in the line up but skipper Keith Martin moved quickly and pace bowler Steven Leckey comes with much Premier League experience from Lurgan, and Keith Dempster has been brought in after showing promising signs for Millpark. Saintfield narrowly missed out on promotion last year and are likely to prove the sternest opposition for the league. However with Armagh, Laurelvale, Millpark and Victoria all in the same league, a number of exciting derbies are on the cards.

The 2nd XI will be looking to score for the whole season and continue to build on the promise shown in the first half of last season where they led the league before a poor run in saw the season fall apart and have returned to the captaincy of Colin Derby, assisted by the youthful Richard Lyttle.

The 3rd XI are continuing under the captaincy of the experienced Raymond Matthews, having led the 3rds to promotions in the past he will be well aware that the blend of youth and experience available to him also holds potential for more silverware.

The under 15, 13 and 11 age groups all continue in division 2 of their respective league structures, and with the youth structure in the club continuing to bear fruit as shown by the large number of members chosen for NCU squads over the winter period the club will be hoping the increasing work going into the youth set up continues to find their way into the senior squads and beyond.