Somerset Trojans coach Dennis Brown is encouraged with the early season form of his young team, especially as most of the squad are aged between 16 and 20.

Following their relegation last term, Brown made it clear that the focus would be placed on the youth at the club.

And he has kept to his word and reckons that while promotion is not the main focus at the moment, the future is bright with their players getting valuable experience at such a young age.

"The main emphasis for Somerset Cricket Club this season is to develop the young players that are coming through the programme which means that the team is very young this season with most players between 16 and 20 years old," said Brown, whose team are undefeated and second in the table.

"We have also received approval from the BFA to play two 15-year-old players in the team as well so promotion is not the main focus. When I first came back to SCC in 2003 I first met Mike Corday, Alfred Maybury and Josef Gooden and we came up with a 10-year plan to get the programme back to where it needs to be and identified that there were too many players who did not come through the junior ranks.

"We knew that in between those 10 years that there would be ups and down but if you now look at our programme you would see that we have a very strong and thriving organisation that will sustain itself for years to come, whether I am there or not."

Trojans got off a good start to their top flight campaign last term, taking eight points from their first four games and were as high as second place before losing to Dandy Town, a result that triggered their startling slide.

The club then went on a horrendous run and picked up just one point for the remainder of the campaign.

This season, though, the former Bermuda international believes he has the right mix of senior players that will help bring the next generation to the top.

"I am not worried about the players that we lost during the transfer period, to me that was a blessing because this gave us an opportunity to utilise the bright young players that are coming through the programme.

"We will only be using the senior players when necessary this season like captain Jelani Scott, Darin Minors, Johnny Bean, Jensen Rogers and Danvers Seymour because our focus is to expose the youth.

"When it comes to the other bigger clubs in the First Division such as Robin Hood and the rest, we will worry about them when the time comes, we will take one game at a time and prepare for X'Roads who we play for in our next match.

"The team is now made up of mostly 16 to 18-year-olds, and in Sunday's match against BAA we played nine players who were in that age range. Many of the players I had in my championship under-15 team two years ago.

"We are now at the stage where we do not have to go outside to get players to play for SCC and that was something that we took pride in when I was coming through the junior ranks."

n The Bermuda Football Association (BFA) has added an additional weekend to the football schedule after moving next week's mi-week games to December 12th.

Matches that were changed include Devonshire Colts v North Village, scheduled for November 2, St. George's v Southampton Rangers, scheduled for November 3, Devonshire Cougars v Dandy Town scheduled for November 4, and St. David's v Somerset Eagles slated for the same day.

The games will take place at Police Field, Wellington Oval, Devonshire Rec., and St. David's respectively. Also being moved is the First Division match between Paget and Robin Hood from November 3 to November 4.

The Dudley Eve match between North Village and Somerset Eagles will be played October 27 at Somerset Cricket Club, with the semi-finals set to take place on November 3.