OUR competitive season gets under way on Sunday when we entertain Hertfordshire in our first Unicorns Knockout Trophy match of the summer.

We’ve had a couple of friendlies so far - one against Frocester and one against Berkshire - and we’ve won both, so the team are quietly confident going into the game.

It’s a little bit of an unknown because we are playing a side we haven’t played for a number of years but we have home advantage and if we play like we have been doing, we should be okay.

The group stage has pitted us against a few teams we are not that used to playing but we are quite happy with it.

It changes every two years and we play Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Wales in the Western Division of the Unicorns Championship anyway, so it’s getting a little bit samey and it’s quite nice to play against some unknowns and teams from the Eastern Division.

We’ve been quite lucky too as, for the away games we’ve got, there is not too much of a trek. They are an hour or so away, so it is not too bad.

We have got a decent squad and I am hoping to keep 13 or 14 of them together. We have got quite a bit of firepower with the batting and a decent bowling line-up as well. The players are going to have to fight for their places, so it’s going to be interesting.

There have been a few players added to the squad from last year and I am really pleased with the way Jon Sore has been playing, although unfortunately, he is not available this weekend.

It’s also good to have Steve Bullen back at the top of the order, Jake Lintott has been a great addition and as another all-rounder, he gives us a great deal of balance, and Michael Bates is back in the team, who is a very good wicketkeeper but can also score runs.

I always feel that if you can get off to a good start, it breeds confidence. The two seasons where we have done well, we got off to a good start. We’ve done that this year, whereas last year wasn’t quite as successful.

We will just be thinking one game at a time and if we can get a run going, then it will generate confidence through the team We don’t target to win the Trophy but if you put the results together, then the end result could be that you pick up a trophy.

It’s early stages. Not many people have played a lot of cricket because the weather has been atrocious and wickets are not great, so it’s about battling through and trying to get those victories early on. If you can do that, it puts you in a good position moving forwards.