PENZANCE skipper Brad Wadlan feels there is still plenty of ‘improvements to be made’ despite seeing the St Clare outfit retain their ECB Cornwall Premier League title on Saturday following a washout at St Just.

Wadlan, who rejoined the club over the winter as player/coach from South Wales Premier League side Swansea, saw his side start slowly with two defeats in their opening three matches – to St Austell and runners-up Wadebridge – but after that they lost just once more – on the penultimate weekend to a Truro side who went down.

Wadlan was one of several new faces this term.

Last year’s captain Ben Seabrook moved to Australia while the likes of Andrew Libby and Dan Lello departed and Giles Lawrence took on the second team captaincy.

Wadlan introduced seamer Pakistani fast bowler Mehran Sanwal who was a sensation, and left-arm spinner Charlie Hearn from Helston, while bowling all-rounder Tommy Sturgess rejoined.

Batting all-rounder Charlie Sharland the supremely-talented Nic Halstead-Cleak were also recruited from the West of England Premier League, and while none of them were as consistent as they would like with the exception of the brilliant Sanwal who struck every 18 balls in the league, strength in-depth with both bat and ball proved key.

Wadlan saw his side come through tough moments in plenty of games, and praised the ever-increasing standard across the top-flight in the Duchy.

He said: “I thought it was a very competitive league and we spoke about that before the season started. Anyone can beat anyone on the day and especially when you travel away from home as teams are very good on home soil.

“To have six teams all still playing for something come the last game of the season shows how competitive it was.”

Penzance are on course for the greatest year in the club’s history.

Now 27-time champions of Cornwall, they are also set to make history on September 20 when they take on Lancashire outfit Ormskirk in the National Club Championship final at Lord’s (11am).

But Wadlan believes there is still plenty of growth in the side.

He said: “I am delighted with how the group have performed this season. It took us a few games to get going but once we built that momentum we ran with it. It’s a very honest changing room and we know we underperformed early in the season.

“Despite a lot of individuals not fully firing with the bat, me included, I said that Grant Stone will be one of our most important players and he was our glue in the middle order, performing in some very tough situations and coming out the other side to win us games.

“But as a bowling group I think they were superb all season. Consistently taking three or four wickets in first 10 to 15 overs was a big reason for our success.”

So what’s next?

Wadlan said: “Consistency is certainly where we can improve and develop which is exciting.

“Winning a league trophy and making a national final at Lord’s is special, but we have a lot of things this group can do to improve, and I have no doubt by keeping the nucleus of it together we will do that moving forward.”

Wadlan also praised his opening batsmen Jack Paull and Christian Purchase – and Sanwal.

He continued: “Jack Paull was fantastic in the league this summer, especially the last month and was presented Batsman of the Year, while Mehran collected the Bowler of the Year.

“Christian was voted Players’ Player of the Year, which included three hundreds to take us to Lord’s.”