NEW Chippenham captain Trevor Lloyd will have already faced hundreds of deliveries tomorrow before he steps out to bat against Devizes.

As a postman Lloyd has to start his Saturday round as early as possible so he is not late for the match.

The 29-year-old, who took over as skipper after Jason Searle's resignation, inherits a team at the wrong end of the West of England Premier Two table. But he is confident of turning Chippenham's fortunes around and that the club's youth development policy points to a bright future.

Lloyd has been going to the club since the age of three when he used to watch his father Adie play and made his first team debut aged 16. The middle order batsman admits he is still learning the ropes of captaincy, but is delighted to have been given the role.

He said: "I didn't expect to be captain this year, but it was just the next step up with Jason making his decision as I was vice-captain before.

"With 13 years of first team experience hopefully that should help with the captaincy. But it's still a thing you pick up the more times you do it, you can't really relax at all, you are always on edge.

"It was a shame it had to come in these circumstances, but it's definitely an honour for me to captain the club. Hopefully I'm well known in the club and respected by everybody I've got a lot of good friends here.

"I hope to be captain until the end of the season and how I do this season will determine if the players vote me in next year."

When Lloyd started playing cricket in the mid 1980s, Chippenham did not have much of a junior section. This meant his first match was for the Sunday second team aged 10 and he was wicketkeeper in the Saturday second team at 12.

He said: "My greatest memory is the first game I played for the first team. It was at home to Brislington and I batted at number seven.

"I was up here on a Friday and the first team were short of players for the game the next day. Dave Turner, who was captain at the time, asked if I could play and I've managed to keep my place since.

"The number nine batsman Andy James and I put on 99 for the ninth wicket, which was a Western League record at the time and I think still is. We managed to get 168-9 and bowled them out for less than that so it was a great day for me.

"I would never think about leaving for another club. It used to be like a second home for me."

Lloyd has also played for Chippenham Rugby Club for a number of years, but does not expect to play rugby next season. Despite his job entailing a very early Saturday start from his Allington Way home, he says he has no trouble remaining alert at the crease.

He said: "I start at 4am to make sure I can get round and back to change. It can be tough, especially for the away games.

"I get changed and go straight away really so I'm still pretty awake."

In 13 years of first team cricket Lloyd's top knock for Chippenham remains 75 not out, against Imperial in the mid-1990s. While on a personal level he hopes to score his first century as captain, he is also fairly optimistic about the club's future as a whole.

He believes the new league pyramid system has raised many teams' standards and knows Chippenham need to attract more top players if they are to progress themselves.

He said: "At the moment we are struggling for some reason to attract better players.

"We had Stephen Adshead, who has just replaced Jack Russell as Gloucestershire wicketkeeper, lined up for the start of the season, but he decided to go to Knowle. It's a good thing now because he would have left us in the lurch.

"Jason Searle should be back for the Devizes game and hopefully he is going to make a lot of difference to our bowling attack. Once we get our settled side back I can see us picking up some good wins."

The club is investing a lot of time and effort into its academy for young players and Lloyd is looking to have some involvement in that.

He added: "It's going to take two, three or four years before they start getting into the first team, but there's quite a lot of good players there already. We need young players coming through to make the club stronger.

"There's a few of them there who could probably take the next step up to county cricket. But the rest will hopefully see getting in the first team as their main aim."