Stoneywood-Dyce captain Jamie King has challenged the Aberdeen side to make People’s Park one of the most formidable grounds in the Eastern Premier League.
Back-to-back victories in their opening weekend of fixtures – one in the league and one in the Scottish Cup – got their season off to a positive start.
Meigle were swept aside on Saturday and then Falkland knocked out of the cup on Sunday, giving Stoneywood-Dyce reward for their pre-season efforts.
They face 2019 champions ion8 Forfarshire at home tomorrow and King believes they can make their home ground a dominant territory this season.
King said: “Any team that comes up to Dyce, we believe we can beat. They are the reigning champions for the reason and are a seriously good cricket team.
Two games, two wins! Week 1 summary: https://t.co/FnzoVL7jcc
💙💛🏏
— Stoneywood Dyce (@StoneywoodDyce) May 23, 2021
“But they will be without one or two players and I think we can beat them. I’m good friends with a few of the Forfarshire boys, but I want to beat them.
“The league is a big unknown this season because quite a few clubs rely on overseas players to win games and they’re not going to have that this year.
“It’s anyones for the taking. Heriots are the favourites they beat last weekend, so anything can happen.”
It has been a relief for many players to get back in the middle again, but for Stoneywood-Dyce, the aim has to be higher than just scraping by.
King added: “We want to do more than just escaping relegation. With there being no overseas players (this season) and most Scotland players away for half-a-season, pretty much everyone is there for the taking.”
There had been some fears about whether club players would return to the sport, after a year of team sport being put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, King feels they have emerged in decent shape from a hugely disrupted 12 months.
He added: “I think it’s going to be an issue for every club in every sport across the UK, apart from golf, which seems to have done well. Every sport is struggling.
“I play rugby as well – that’s struggling with people not coming back after lockdown. It’s something everyone will have to contend with.
“We’re pretty lucky, because we are the highest level club in Aberdeen and we’ve kept most of our players. We’ve had one or two who um’d and ah’d about coming back.
“I was worried, but we’ve not only kept players, we’ve brought in some new ones.”
Andrew MacLaren comes back into the side after missing last weekend, while Lennard Bester is available for the Saturday team after only playing Sunday last week.
Ailsa Lister returns from Scotland duty and will join up with the second team. Stuart Lister and Andrew Rayner will miss out.
