Chairman Don Lange is confident Haxey CC can establish themselves as one of the top 10 clubs in Lincolnshire.

The Isle of Axholme side have been promoted to the Lincs ECB Premier League for the 2012 season, where they will compete against sides like Bracebridge Heath and Grimsby Town, on the back of being crowned champions of the Lincolnshire League Premier Division in September.

Haxey are not newcomers to their new level, having spent a single summer in the competition during 2008.

That year they finished bottom of the pile, and dropped back into the Lincolnshire League, but Lange is adamant his side are much better equipped for what promises to be a challenging campaign.

"We tried it before, for one season, but we had too many youngsters that were just too young," said the Haxey chairman, of a season which produced just one league victory.

"We know what we're doing now and we'll be a better club for those experiences.

"I'm not going to suggest we'll take the league by storm, but we'd settle for finishing third bottom.

"We won't aim to just do that, that would be daft.

"But our outlook is that if we can stay there for the first season, we then know what we need to do to improve on that and we can sit down and look at how we go about doing it."

Winners of the Lincolnshire League have to apply for promotion to the ECB set-up – but don't always opt to.

Messingham, founder members of the Lincs ECB Premier League in 2001, were champions 16 months ago, but decided to stay where they were.

Moving up a level means an increase in costs for Haxey, who are skippered by Mark Atkins, and so club officials are looking for local business to help out with sponsorship.

"We're not looking to compete with the likes of Bracebridge Heath. Very few people can," continued chairman Lange.

"But there are clubs in the league we feel we can compete with and we're going to have a damn good go.

"Staying in the same division would have been the easy decision, but I've been involved in sport all my life and whatever the sport, I think you should want to play at the highest level you can.

"We did the simple thing and said to the players, 'who wants to play in the ECB League?'. It was that simple.

"The answer was yes, 100 per cent, so that made the decision easy. And when the decision was made, it was up to us as organisers to get the funding in place."

Haxey are hoping to keep all of their 2011 squad in place for their return to the ECB Premier.

And with the likes of Ian Leach (top) and Graham Attenborough (second) ranking highly in the Lincolnshire League batting and bowling averages, they have every reason to be upbeat about the challenge.

"We'll be up against some very good players, but that's what you want and our players will learn from that," concluded Lange.

"We'll not be fazed by it. I'm confident we'll do much better than last time, because we've got much better players."

To find out about the sponsorship opportunities available at Haxey CC, call Don Lange on 01427 752394.