Freddie Clark has been appointed club captain by Cirencester as they look to rebuild in 2025.

The soon-to-be 27-year-old is happy to take on the newly created role even though he is preparing for what will be only his third season with club.

Originally from Essex, he moved to this part of the world after studying at Loughborough University and he’s certainly looking forward to making his mark.

“I’m relatively new to the area and I’m still quite young but I’ve thrown myself into the thick of it at Cirencester Cricket Club,” he told The Local Answer.

“I want to help build a culture at the club that people can get behind.”

Clark will leave the on-field captaincy to others.

Alex Tuck, a wicketkeeper/batsman, will captain the 1^st XI in Division One of the Gloucestershire County League and he, too, is a relative newcomer to the club.

“Last season was his first full season with us,” added Clark. “He was previously with Oaksey but he’s taken to us like a duck to water, he’s one of the older heads.”

Tuck and Clark, who is a product designer, will work closely together in the coming weeks and months.

Cirencester run four senior sides on a Saturday and Clark said: “My role is to support all the captains, they take on a lot of responsibility on the playing side.

“In the past the 1^st XI captain was also the de facto club captain but we think the two roles should be separate.

“I’m the point of contact for all the senior playing sides.”

He’s also chairman of the selection process, which also involves the captains and coaches, and he’s on the club committee too.

Club captain is very much a new role for Clark, although he does have leadership experience because he captained the 2^nd XI for much of last season once Alex Tatara-Mills was called up to the 1^st XI.

A big-hitting batsman, he expects to be playing for the 2^nd XI again this season, a the team that will be co-captained by Rob Hall and Hugo Bashall in Division 6A of the County League.

“I’m happy at the level I play,” said Clark. “I like to attack from ball one but I did find my own game retreating a little bit when I was captaining the side.”

The 2nds were relegated from Division Five last season and the 1^st team secured their place in Division One only on the final day of the season when they overcame Thornbury 2nds by four wickets.

They had dropped out of the West of England Premier League the year before and Clark admitted: “It’s no secret that we’ve been through a bit of a rough patch over the past couple of seasons but it was a really big win over Thornbury, it really galvanised the club.

“We are rebuilding and we’ve re-set the standard for what we want to be.”

So what is the aim for the 1^st XI this season?

“I think we want to cement ourselves in the first division,” said Clark. “I think we have the players to do that, we’ve recruited some senior players.

“Last year we had a very young team – the average age was 18 or 19. This season we will be more experienced but we remain realistic, we want to be competing at the upper levels in Division One.”

The hope is that by bringing in some older heads, the club’s youngsters will have more time to develop before being selected for the flagship team.

And once they get the call, Clark expects them to enjoy playing under Tuck.

“He’s very cool, calm and collected on the pitch,” Clark said. “He holds it together well, but he’ll be aggressive when he needs to be.”