Minster have a new captain and a fresh approach for the 2025 Kent Cricket League Premier Division season.

Last season’s runners-up will have a more inexperienced squad but captain Kai Appleby has high hopes that they have the quality to be competitive.

Appleby hopes it’s a squad that can grow and develop together over the next few years.

He said: “It’s a new look for the club, going with a younger side that will be a bit less experienced, but the ability is all there. We’ve got to make that switch at some point.

“We’ve established ourselves in the Premier Division now, and we’ve had a couple of second-place finishes. Hopefully, we’ll give it another go and a year or two with the same team and we’ll probably be one of the better teams.”

Minster have South African overseas wicketkeeper-batsman Jason Van Dyk in for the season after he previously played for Nonington.

His resume says he’s a “high-class right-hander that can bat anywhere in the order, although he prefers to open…also a capable wicket-keeper as well as being a tidy right-arm leg spinner.”

Appleby has previously captained hometown club Whitstable, where he scored nearly 6,000 runs. He’s a former county age-group player and made appearances for Kent’s 2nds while also spending a couple of seasons in Australia, with Newcastle City and New South Wales.

He moved to Minster in the summer of 2019 and has been a key member of the 1st XI ever since. Last season, Minster came close to winning the Premier Division, only to fall short in the latter weeks of the campaign.

Appleby said: “We’ve got a good group of lads together and hopefully that group, being a bit younger will benefit us come the end of the season when bodies went a bit last year.

“It’s a long season and to give your all for 18 weeks straight, without including the Sunday cricket we play, and training, it’s a big commitment.

“It’s a younger team but they’ve all got good ability and I am not concerned with what we’ve got.

“If the players step up and perform how they can, then we’ll be fine. I’ve said to the group, there is no reason why they can’t win it but any position in the top half of the table we’d be happy with, especially with the amount of changes and the team being so much younger than it was last year and so inexperienced.

“There are more experienced teams who have played together for a lot longer who will be towards the top of the league and that’s something we’ve struggled with, we’ve always had the experience, but the team always changes quite a bit year to year.

“This is the first stage of building that team for the next five, six or seven years.”

Minster have had a positive pre-season with comfortable wins over Harold Wood, Roffey and Broadstairs. They lost last Saturday’s game against Dartford but it was all about getting minutes in the middle.

Dartford’s top-order batters went in twice during the 50 overs that Minster bowled.

Appleby said: “Their captain asked to send their batters back in and I said okay. It was good for our bowlers to bowl at their better batters but it meant their top four came back when our bowlers were getting tired.

“I just wanted to make sure our lads got 50 overs in the field and that’s only going to benefit them bowling to their opening batters again rather than the tail.

“I’ve been impressed with the boys.”

Minster open their league season at home against Bromley on Saturday (12pm) and are back in action the following day at Gilbert Hall when they entertain Horsham in the ECB National Club Championship.