First of all, I would like to thank the Wrexham Leader for giving me the opportunity this season to write for my local paper.

The generous support I have received from the paper over the years has been benevolent and I hope this exposure encourages more people in North Wales into cricket.

In this column, I will be sharing my thoughts on the upcoming season, my experiences during the winter and my love for Wrexham AFC.

It’s that time of year when the excitement builds as everyone is looking forward to finally being back outdoors. The team started back in November, where we focus on technique and adjusting minor aspects of our game. However, some of my team-mates are lucky enough to flee the cold weather to play in the warmer climates of the Southern Hemisphere during the winter. The rest of the players stay in Wales to begin the long pre-season process for the upcoming season.

As a club and individuals, we look to improve areas of our game we feel can have the greatest benefit to our performance and the team’s moving forward. The most impact of pre-season is put in from November to January, where we focus most of our time on strength and conditioning, which helps us for the long season ahead.

After the Christmas period, I was invited to spend a few months in Cape Town to work with Gary Kirsten, the retired South African cricketer and international coach. I was fortunate to go to the Gary Kirsten Academy with two of my team-mates and good friends, Aneurin Donald and Owen Morgan. The experience of training in Cape Town’s conditions and getting miles in the legs was hugely beneficial, as we can implement everything we learnt about technique and game plans into our performance here. I believe it is important to train in different environments and with different coaches to gain varied perspectives to take my game to the next level.

During the trip, we made the most of being in Cape Town. Highlights included climbing up Table Mountain at 5:30am to watch the sunrise over the city, visiting Townships to coach cricket to young children and playing matches against the Western Province side.

We didn’t always live in luxury as the city’s water crisis made day-to-day life difficult with restrictions on water usage. Showering could only be done every couple days, so the swimming pool was the next option for washing our clothes and ourselves. ‘Nye’ definitely struggled with the crisis as he needed to make sure his hair stayed slick.

Although coming home meant confronting the ‘Beast from the East’, I was excited about having a well-needed hot bath.

In March, the team was very fortunate to visit Dubai and train at the ICC Cricket Academy. The facilities were world-class and the weather was incredible! The chance to spend 10 days together as a squad after spending our winter all around the world helped us bond and begin to bring everything we learnt together. We played fixtures against a strong Surrey team and won two games from two.

These wins were very important for the team as a benchmark to how we can perform throughout the 2018 season. There is a great blend of youth and experience in the current Glamorgan squad.

Also, there is competition for places in the team, which has not been as significant in previous seasons but very healthy and welcoming if we want to progress as a group.

Looking ahead to the first block of the County Championship games, the anticipation is building and there is a great vibe around the dressing room. There’s a strong belief we are going to challenge in the format this year. The new signing of Shaun Marsh into the squad will give us vital experience, runs and knowledge. We will definitely be picking his brains! Now the younger players are another year older, have more experience and setting higher goals, 2018 is a very exciting year.

After a personally frustrating season last year, I see 2018 as an important one. My game has progressed both technically and mentally, and I am looking forward to making this season a good one. I don’t set out individual goals for the season, I prefer to take each game as they come and focus on putting in the effort for the team and myself.

Now onto my beloved Wrexham AFC. The last few weeks have been frustrating, after a solid start in the season showed a glimmer of chance of promotion, we face a battle for a place in the play-offs.

Losing Dean Keates has shown how influential he was with the players and it is such a blow to lose him at a vital time in the season. Hopefully we can secure a place in the play-offs and from there, anything can happen.

Finally, I would like to wish all the cricket clubs in North Wales the very best for the 2018 season.