Haverhill & District start new Eastern Counties Division One West season at home to Mildenhall & Red Lodge this Saturday

Zac Evans is hoping Haverhill & District can finish higher up the pack in a busier Eastern Counties Division One West field this season.

After finishing sixth in a seven-team division last time out, before splitting off to play in the Salver competition, Haverhill will be one of nine sides competing in the 2022/23 Division One West.

Haverhill start their new campaign at home to Mildenhall & Red Lodge this Saturday (3pm), in what will be their first outing since April, having been unable to complete a fixture during pre-season.

“We’ve been training for the last couple of months now,” Haverhill captain Evans said.

“We’ve had some training camps during pre-season which have been good but we’ve not been able to get any pre-season games in.

“Unfortunately because of the weather we’ve had and the pitches being hard it’s not been possible to get games in.

“We also had one game where the other team couldn’t raise a team.

“We’ve had some full-contact sessions to try and get the boys ready for it. It’s going to be a big test for the boys going into a full-contact game again on Saturday.”

This season will also see Haverhill return to the single-league format, with no mid-season split into smaller divisions, a move which Evans was pleased to see.

“I prefer having the one straight league,” he said.

“We do still get some weeks off, but it’s going to be a pretty packed out fixture list through until March time.

“This season we want to have a big push and try and finish as high up as we possibly can. We’re not necessarily looking at promotion. I think another season at this level, with the Colts coming through as well, would stand us in good stead.”

Adam Hunt and Rob Call have both retired from playing, while Evans plans to give game time to players in the club’s Colts team during the season.

Haverhill are still recruiting for players. Training is on Tuesday evenings at the club from 6.45pm.