CLUB captain Stu Parkin firmly believes the direction of Kendal’s season hinges on the next fortnight with league action supplemented by two bids for knockout silverware.

The Shap Road club are in Readers Cup quarter-final action at Blackpool on Sunday while seven days later Parkin and Co. will host Furness in the semi-final of the Cumbria Cup.

Kendal currently lie ninth in Northern Premier Cricket League Division One and travel to Morecambe on Saturday knowing wins are crucial if they are to challenge for a top-end spot.

And Parkin is under no illusions how important upcoming games are and retains high hopes heading into a set of fixtures which are set to shape the remainder of Kendal’s summer.

“The next couple of weeks are pretty much make or break for the season,” he said.

“It could be all smiles in two weeks time or it could be, not so much season over, but a case of us being left playing for league positions. It is a season defining moment I would have thought.

“We have Blackpool in the Readers Cup who are going well and have put together a string of impressive wins in league and cup cricket and are going to be high on confidence.

“But on our day we have the beating of any team in the league and it’s just whether we can apply that on the day in question.

“We still want to improve our league position starting with Morecambe on Saturday and like I’ve said previously I still believe a top four position is not beyond us at all.

“We’ve won our last two league games against Penrith and Preston so a few more like that and we won’t be far off those teams in the higher reaches of the league.”

Kendal’s fixture programme has been fairly unrelenting over recent weeks and months with a multitude of fixtures across four competitions, including an expanded T20 group.

With no league game last weekend, Parkin took the decision to give his side a full weeks rest in a bid to recharge their batteries, something the 33-year-old hopes will soon pay dividends.

“I gave the lads a full week off last week as after such a hectic month I thought it was a lot to ask the lads to train on a Thursday night when there was no game on the Saturday,” he added.

“So I decided to give everyone the week off and I think the lads will have appreciated that. However, I suspect they are now ready to get back in the full swing of things with two weeks of very important cricket coming up.”

Teams:

Morecambe v Kendal (Northern League, Saturday): Stu Parkin (c), Richard Herron, Darren Moore, Jamie How, Terry Hunte, Ryan Shepherd, Gary Baker, Graham Baker, Nick Lewthwaite, Adam Cowperthwaite, Chris Miller

Team for Sunday’s Readers Cup clash with Blackpool TBC