HELSTON skipper Dan Jenkin admits he is ‘really pleased’ with their winter so far as they look to progress once more in the ECB Cornwall Premier League.

The Blues finished third last summer and look a good bet to in the top half again, and already have their squad nicely in place including the return of batting all-rounder Jayden Mitchell as overseas player and fellow Aussie Harry Saunders, whose leg-spin ended up with 35 league wickets, the most in the division.

Jenkin said: “We’re really pleased with how our winter has looked so far. At this point last year, we were pretty unsettled and we’ve made a conscious effort to ensure that isn’t the case this time around.

“Barring losing Brad Bury after his retirement, we’ve kept the group from last season, including Jayden and Harry. Both lads are big characters around the club, had really strong performances on the field in 2025 and I’m sure it won’t take long to see the best of them once again this time around.”

In an ultra-competitive division and with clubs looking to steal a march on each other all the time, Jenkin has also been recruiting.

“In terms of new faces, we’ve added Lewis Stephens and Bryn Evans,” he continued. “We obviously know Lewis really well from his time with us before, whilst Bryn is someone we’ve had our eye on for a long time now and we’re delighted to get him in from Perranporth. We’ve already seen them around the club this winter, so they’ll settle in great and despite still being young lads, I think we’ll see some big performances from the pair of them this coming season.”

Several clubs utilise a pro as well, and Helston are no different.

Jenkin continued: “Lewis Goldsworthy has committed himself to us again which is really pleasing. As a mate of his I hope he’s in the Somerset side every week and we don’t see him at all, but if we do, then that’s brilliant for the club and the lads in the dressing room. He really buys in to the culture when he’s with us and gives a lift to those around him.”

With a relatively young squad, Helston should continue to improve over the coming seasons, a fact not lost on Jenkin.

“We’ve got Billy Taylor and Sunshine Osmont having a winter in Australia. Both of those have made themselves integral parts of our XI and are future club captains, so I’m really looking forward to getting them back and how that experience has improved them as players.

“Besides that, we may look to make one more addition but that would only be if the right person makes themselves available. We’re pretty big on the culture we have at the club and we won’t be upsetting that for the sake of it. If the squad we have now is the squad we enter the first weekend with then I’ll be more than satisfied with that.”

Jenkin is also hoping they can hit the ground running after last year’s controversy with the attempted overseas signing of Australian Yuvraj Sharma who was denied a visa, but they feels they are on track.

He concluded: “Obviously we felt hard done by at the start of last season with what happened with sorting out our overseas, but I don’t think we should use that as an excuse for the inconsistency in our performances early on.

“We’ve tweaked how our pre-season looks and will play our National Cup game against Dartington and Totnes, Truro in a T20 friendly and then Cornwood away on April 25 leading up to the opening weekend at home to St Austell. That should give us every chance of performing well once the season begins.”