Former Warwickshire and England pace bowler Gladstone Small will be the guest speaker at Newclose’s pre-season dinner on Friday April 30.

Small played 17 tests for England between 1986 and 1991 and took 5 for 48 against Australia in the 1986-87 series ‘down under’. Since retiring in 1995 he has been involved in many projects away from cricket, but in 2005 he became a director of the Professional Cricketers’ Association.

Tickets for the event will cost £35 per person of £320 for a table of ten including vat and are available from Newclose by calling 01983 824575 or emailing [email protected].

The new cricket season gets under way for Ventnor this weekend (April 10-11) with Steephill staging two friendly fixtures. Southampton Community are the visitors on Saturday at 1.30 while on Sunday, Portsmouth University provide the opposition with a 1pm start.