Tewkesbury’s new overseas cricketer will have to come to terms with English conditions quickly if he is to make an early impact at the club.

Ash Woodhead, from Tasmania, is a fast bowler who can bat a bit as well, says club chairman Andy Shiner.

“He’ll get the new ball and we’ll see how he goes,” said Shiner. “He’ll need to learn to pitch the ball up. He plays on concrete pitches in Australia and he’s used to seeing the ball flying round the batsman’s ribs and head.

“It can take time for some of the guys who come from overseas to adapt.”

Skipper Tom Allcoat will have an important role in helping Ashhead settle in this country but that should not prove too difficult as he played with him in Tasmania in 2013 and is good friends with the 25-year-old.

The early signs are good.

“Ash knows he’s got to pitch the ball up,” Allcoat, 23, said: “He’s fit and he’s a big, strong lad. It’s his first time over here and he’s come over early so that he can acclimatise to the English conditions.

“It’s good because a lot of the overseas players don’t come over until just before the start of the season and can be a bit rusty.”

Allcoat captained the side last season and despite being in his early 20s, Shiner said he “didn’t take much persuading to take the job”.

“He’s a good young player,” added Shiner. “He’s an all-rounder, he bowls medium pace and swings it and bats in the top five.

“His family is a dynasty at the club. His dad Dave is the groundsman and still plays a bit for the third team and his brothers John and James both play in the first team.”

Tewkesbury are in the Gloucestershire Division of the West of England Premier League and although pre-season nets have gone well, Shiner was not prepared to commit when asked how he thought Tewkesbury would fare this season.

“I never like to predict what will happen,” he said. “When you start saying you are going to have a good season it’s a recipe for it all to go wrong.

“We’re hopeful that we have a successful season and that we finish in the top half of the division. But ultimately not getting relegated is successful.

“We got promotion from the equivalent of this division four years ago and went up to Glos/Wilts. To say we struggled is putting it mildly and the second year was really difficult.

“There is a big gap between where we are now and the next division. Promotion can be a double edged sword although that’s not to say we’re not ambitious.”

Tewkesbury welcome back Freddie Humphries this season after a year away. The opening batsman spent 12 months in New Zealand although his cricket education was cut short when he sustained a knee injury which required an operation.

Now fully fit, Shiner said: “We missed him a lot last season. He’s an old-fashioned opening batsman who is prepared to get his head down when needed.”

Warren Deeming, described by Shiner as “a mainstay of the batting”, and Stuart Tame are two other top order players who will be expected to supply their quota of runs.

Shiner, meanwhile, will enjoy watching the season unfold from beyond the boundary rope.

Now 53, the former first-team batsman retired just before the millennium “when the young lads started running rings round me”.

And rather modestly, he added: “It showed the state of the club that I was able to get into the first team. We’ve moved on since then and I wouldn’t have got into today’s 1st XI.”

His watching brief does allow him to look on with great satisfaction at the club’s excellent junior set-up.

“We get more than 100 youngsters aged seven to 17 turning up on Friday evenings,” he said. “Our junior coordinator Gwyn Williams does a great job.

“The youngsters are the lifeblood of the club. And the parents enjoy it too. They can have a beer and for many of them it’s the best night of the week.”