Prestatyn captain Andy Taylor hopes his side can beat the university challenge to prosper Division Two.
An annual problem for the Welsh resort side is that they only have a full squad for part of the season, due to players’ educational commitments.
Taylor said: “The problem we have, being so out of the way, is that a lot of our lads are in uni until the end of May.
“They come back, we have a strong middle of the season, then they all go again just towards the end.
“But if we can pick up some positive results in the early part of the season, and then we get those players back - we could hopefully challenge for the top four.
“We’ve got a young squad, and they’re all at an age now where we want to see them impacting games on a regular basis.
“We’re hoping these lads can put what they’re doing in training into games, and we should be in a good position.”
Prestatyn finished sixth last year, with their results following the pattern Taylor described.
They didn’t win a game until June 12, then embarked on a run of seven wins out of eight, before tailing off a little.
Sri Lankan Sampath Perera, who took 55 wickets including seven five-fors in 2021, is back for another year - if he fires again, Taylor thinks a promotion challenge could be in their reach.
“We had a really tough start to the year,” said Taylor. “If we didn’t have that, we would have been up there, because it was quite tight at the top last year.
“So if we can hit the ground running, we should be in a position to challenge.”
