Upminster Cricket Club are pleased to announce that Adam Wheater will captain the club's 1st XI for the 2023 season. Adam's appointment comes as Alan Ison leaves the club to join Sawbridgeworth for the coming summer.

Former Essex wicket-keeper Wheater retired from the first class game in September, and made his Upminster debut at the end of last season, scoring a magnificent century in the victory over Wickford. "Wheats" has been a familiar face around the club in recent years, as he has been working with Head Coach Scott Simmons as part of our junior coaching programme, as well as spending his winters working at the Club Cricket Academy in Ockendon.

Everyone at the club is delighted that Adam has taken on the captaincy, and we are sure that all of our members will join us in wishing him and the rest of the side the very best of luck for the 2023 season. We will hear more from our new captain over the coming days.

We would also like to wish Alan all the best as he takes on a new cricketing challenge. Having joined the club from Ilford in 2006, Alan went on to become one of the most loyal and influential playing members to wear the blue and gold over the last 17 seasons. The statistics speak for themselves (over 14,000 runs and more than 400 wickets for the club) but his contribution on and off the field was a lot greater than numbers alone. Alan was captain of the 2007 Matchplay side who reached the final of the competition before losing out to South Woodford, and he then went on to captain the 1st XI in 2016 as they gained promotion back to the Premier Division of the Essex League. Alan took on the captaincy again for the disrupted 2020 season, and continued in the role in 2021 and 2022 where he helped to integrate a number of younger players into the 1st team squad. At his peak Alan was one of the most feared and destructive batters in the Essex League, but throughout all that remained loyal to his hometown club.

We are sure that we will still see Alan and his family at the club during the summer, and we wish him and his new team mates all the best for the season ahead.