Willis Dill, the new Western Stars Sports Club president, wants to see the club’s cricket programme thriving again in the next few years.

These days cricket comes a distant second to football at the club, with Dandy Town holding four of the Island’s five major trophies, including the league and FA Cup. However, there was a time when the club was more known for its success on the cricket field.

Dill, who replaced Wayne Campbell as president last week, wants to see those days return to St John’s Road.

“In five years I want to have a cricket programme that is flourishing,” said Dill, who beat out former president Cecil Lewis for the top post after Campbell opted not to see re-election. “It’s going to take a while, obviously, but we’re going to work on it. I would like to see our cricket programme be just as strong as our football programme.

“We’ve got to get the cricket programme up and running. If there are 12 teams on St John’s Road playing football then why can’t we take a quarter of those boys and get some cricket going? There are a few other things that we’re working on, but that’s the main thing for the next four or five years: to get the cricket programme going.”

Dill, who served on the first executive at the club when the cricket and football teams merged, was prompted by some members to run for president. He received the support of Campbell who decided against running again, though he now serves on the management committee.

“It’s only been a week, I’m just finding out how the club functions and seeing where we are,” Dill said. “I have some ideas but I have to find out where we are before I determine where I want to take the club.

“There is one member of the club who, for the last 12 years, every time there was an election would approach me and ask me ‘are you going to run for president’. I used to tell her I was too busy, too many things going on, which was the truth.

“This time around I was out one day and ran into certain people from the club and they were telling me ‘you need to run’. I received about six or seven phone calls from members and told them I would think about it and decided my plate is kind of empty now and maybe this is the time.”

Dill added: “I have to give credit to Wayne, those before me and those who are still working, who have done a lot of work to make that programme what it is today. They deserve a lot of credit for it. Wayne is still involved, on the management committee, and the members have given me a very good executive and a very good management committee to work with.

“When Wayne became president, I was one of the people who backed him and have been in his corner ever since. I told him people were asking me to run for president and that I would seriously consider it. He said, ‘You were behind me, why can’t I be behind you?’

Dill has Shawnette Perott, the club’s youth co-ordinator and a former secretary of Western Stars, as his vice-president, replacing Michael Weeks, the Progressive Labour Party Member of Parliament, while Gershon Gibbons has returned as treasurer and Christy Morton as assistant treasurer. Steven Lewis, who was on the management committee last year, is now secretary, while Carla Zuill is assistant secretary.

“It’s a learning curve, learning what works within the club and if it works then leave it,” Dill said. “For instance, the football programme is a really good programme. It’s nice to see young players like Ayshaun Smith, Jahnazae Swan, Tomiko Goater and Jahtino Richardson-Martin holding their own in the team.

“That says a lot about our programme, which speaks to the youngsters coming behind them. If they can look and see youngsters at 16 breaking into the team, there’s no reason why they can’t say to themselves ‘if they can do it, I can do it too’.”