One Englishman has already played a big part in Northern Districts Cricket Club's success to date.
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The Butchers are hoping their latest Englishman, all-rounder Jack Plom will prove just as popular when he plays for the club during the second half of the Cricket Illawarra season.
Plom comes to the Butchers with a wealth of experience having earned a first class cap for Essex CCC in addition to five List A and 13 Vitality Blast appearances for the club.
He also plies his trade for Shenfield CC in the Essex League and has previously appeared for the England U19s.
Unfortunately for Plom and Northern Districts, he won't get the opportunity to play with the club's other Englishman Archie Harrison.
The 18-year-old Harrison has been a revelation for the Butchers this season, playing a big part with both bat and ball as Northern Districts went on to be crowned Cricket Illawarra Twenty20 champions in October.
Since then Harrison has been just as impressive in the one-day competition, helping the club win four of their six games to date.
The talented all-rounder will play on Saturday and two more games after the Christmas break before returning home to England to take up a professional cricket contract with Derbyshire.
Northern Districts captain Jackson Stewart said the club would miss Harrison but was looking forward to welcoming another Englishman to the fold.
"We will definitely miss Archie, he has been great for us," he said.
"He is still with us until late January so that's good for us. We'd love for him to stay but understand he has a great opportunity and wish him all the best.
"We're hoping Jack will be just as good for us. He is a bit older than Archie and is more of a bowler but I think he will offer us just as much when he gets here."
We're hoping Jack will be just as good for us.
- Jackson Stewart
Round seven matches on Saturday will be the last before a three-week break, with the Illawarra cricket season to resume on January 7 next year.
The third-placed Butchers will be looking to string their fifth win on the trot after dropping their opening two games, when they host Balgownie at Holymount Park.
"Our season is going well now but we did lose our opening two games," Stewart said.
"The good news is we've won our last four on the trot, hopefully we can extend that on [Saturday]."
Stewart said his team's good form of late had a lot to do with their improved bowling performance in recent weeks.
"We played two tough teams early on but we didn't really bowl well. We have since tightened our bowling and it's paying dividends."
In other games, Keira play Wests, Helensburgh battle Port Kembla, University face Corrimal and Wollongong battle Dapto.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
