West of England Premier Two: NEW Devizes Cricket Club captain Nick Paget is hoping a professional approach will help the side maintain their Premier Two status.

The 26-year-old, who lives in London Road, Devizes, has take first XI skipper position after Mark Colyer had relinquished the role because of work and family commitments.

Paget, who has been at the club since he was ten, has previously captained the club's Sunday side.

He said he was looking to continue the progress made by Colyer, who is still playing for the first XI, and will only make minor changes in order to find the right blend for the side.

"My aim is to just follow on from what Mark has already done," said Paget. "We are still early in the season and it is difficult to assess things on the job.

"I'll only be tweaking things and trying to accentuate the good things we are already doing.

"One change is that we have gone to train on a different night. We'll be training on Tuesdays while the rest of the club still trains on Wednesdays.

"I just feel that now we have gone up a division we need to make the firsts feel a bit more elite.

"We are playing some very good teams with some full-time players and it's not a cakewalk. No teams roll over now and instead of having seven or eight decent players they've got a complete team.

"I feel we need to have a professional approach and make more use of a squad set-up.

"I think it's important that we have 16 players going in one direction instead of nine and three others."

Paget has only had one match as skipper so far because rain put paid to any hopes of play last weekend.

He said he is now just looking forward to kicking on with the season as Devizes try to maintain their Premier Two place following their promotion last season.

"When Mark stood down I was next in the queue as vice-captain so I took it on from there," Paget added.

"We've only had one game since then at Weston when we did alright but were second best on the day to a better team.

"When we started early doors this season things were going well and Mark set us the first target of securing survival.

"We've targeted the games we feel we must win and it was disappointing Knowle was rained off on Saturday because that was one of them.

"But apart from Glastonbury everyone is beating everyone else in the division at the moment.

"We've beaten Ilminster who are in third and we just need to get our momentum going again now.

Paget, who actually lives next to the Devizes Sports Club entrance and can see the cricket field from his bedroom, is relishing this weekend's local derby with Chippenham.

"It is going to be a big game and hopefully we'll get a good crowd with there being some local interest," he continued.

"The two sides are in a similar situation but although results don't show it I think we are the better side.

"We haven't lost at home so far this season, although we've had a couple of home games rained off, and think we are capable of beating them.

"We must be confident going into it because if we aren't then we are already three steps behind."

Paget has been boosted by the recent returns of Will Muse from university and Simon Whatling who can resume his cricket after being released from Bath RFC's 2nd XV.

He also said he was glad former skipper Colyer was still playing for the firsts.

"Mark has played a lot of cricket and has got a lot of experience playing high level cricket in the area," Paget said.

"We need him in the team for his experience and his runs.

"He is a valuable asset and it's great to have him there because he's happy to offer me advice when I need it."