WERRINGTON director of cricket Adam Hodgson is keeping things extremely simple as the village outfit gear up for the start of the 2026 ECB Cornwall Premier League campaign.

The four-time champions looked in big trouble early on last summer, but a series of nailbiting victories including a huge chase of 334 against Saturday’s opening day opponents Grampound Road (1pm), meant they comfortably avoided the drop in the end to finish sixth.

Sri Lankan run-machine Thulina Dilshan is back for a third summer, while Cornwall skipper Paul Smith has returned and looks set to slot into a strong middle-order that also includes Dilshan and Mark Gribble.

A whole raft of spinners will be crucial on the batting-friendly surfaces at Ladycross, but there is a quiet confidence they should be in mid-table, helped by winning all three of their friendlies.

Hodgson, who made 125 in Saturday’s 29-run victory over Tavistock, said: “Pre-season has gone well, our youngsters are looking good.

“As for the season, I’m not one for setting in targets really, but what I say to everyone is win the next ball, then the stats and results will take care of themselves.

“The seconds’ league looks very strong with most teams having an overseas player, so they will need to play well to compete.

“We are hoping for better availability in the ones, and with Smithy joining us will only make the other teams stronger.”

While the seconds will need to be at their best to survive in a very strong Division Two East having only stayed up by a point in 2025, the thirds and fourths will look to win but also bring on the youth in Division Four and Six respectively.

However, all clubs are judged by the first team and Hodgson knows it’s going to be another big summer.

He said: “It looks to me that every team in the league has strengthened, so I see it being a very good standard.

“Penzance should walk it with the side they’ve got, I also think Wadebridge will be up there again as a second overseas makes them a different side.

“But for us, we would like some more consistency with our batting, especially in the middle and lower order. Some games we left a lot of runs out there with too many dot balls at the back end, so it’s something we have worked on over the winter.

“Bowling wise we always seem to do well in the middle overs, but need more consistency at the start and end of the innings, with better bowling plans at the end.

“In general we struggled with availability last year, but the early signs look better for this year. However, we realise it’s a different world now and we can’t expect people to play every game.”

Werrington’s ladies section is into its third year and the progress has been huge.

Hodgson continued: “We are just trying to improve the ladies year on year, they work very hard and have had some good cricket over the winter indoors. We have great people in charge of that in Hayley (Kirby) and Lee (Houghton), so I see it going from strength-to-strength.

“We’ve also entered girls teams at under 11s, under 13s and under 16s levels, with the view of getting participation up at the lower ages and creating more of a pathway into ladies’ hardball cricket.”