Charlie Home following in his family's footsteps at Shropshire
Promising all-rounder Charlie Home, the latest member of his family to represent the county, is keen to help Shropshire claim their first victory of the season when they face Wales in the Unicorns Knockout Trophy at Oswestry on Sunday.
Home, who is in his final year at Wrekin College and has ambitions to become a professional cricketer, knows it’s important that Shropshire put some points on the board as they get ready for the third of four group games after opening with defeats against Staffordshire and Cheshire.
“We have a really strong side,” said Home, who plays his club cricket for Shifnal and is a member of Northamptonshire’s academy.
“I obviously haven’t played a lot of Minor Counties cricket so far and have not come up against Wales before, but from our perspective we have a talented group and if we get things right we will be hard to beat.
“We’ve shown in patches what we can do over the last couple of games.
“We got ourselves into a really good position to win against Cheshire, so moving forward we are keen to pull it all together.
“I’ve played at Oswestry a couple of times. I remember it always being a great wicket and a really nice place to play, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Home comes from a real cricketing family as his dad, Ed, played for Shropshire, as did Jim, his grandfather. Guy, his uncle, is a former county captain, his cousin Tom also featured at Minor Counties level while Charlie’s sister, Milly, plays for the Shropshire women’s team.
Now Home, who lives in Newport and is currently preparing for his A-levels, is proud to be following in their footsteps having progressed to the first team from the Shropshire junior age group sides.
He said: “Dad’s come to watch the last couple of games and my uncle and grandfather came to watch the game at Shrewsbury, so we’re obviously all very passionate about Shropshire cricket.
‘’Karl Krikken and Bryan Jones gave me my debut at 16 and I have done the training with the squad over the last three winters.
“Hopefully, I should be available for the remaining one-day games and the Championship matches, subject to any Northants second team commitments, and I’ll be looking to play as many as I can.
“I have played through the Shropshire junior age groups with Dillon Pennington and George Hargrave and it’s really nice that we have all progressed through to the senior side at the same time.”
The first ball will be bowled at Oswestry at 11am on Sunday and admission is free.
