James Ayrton is delighted to have had the opportunity to have his first real taste of captaincy since playing youth football at the age of 12.
The new Bishop’s Stortford skipper wore the armband when playing football for Winchmore Hill as a youngster.
He has now been chosen to be the permanent successor to Sam Winter, who retired at the end of last season after being with the club for 21 years and leading the team throughout their time in National League 1. .
Ayrton, 28, shared the role with Jack Scantlebury last season when Winter was sidelined with a broken arm.
The inside center is now looking forward to leading a leadership team, which includes new vice-captains Tom Banks and James Apperley, for the start of a new era.
And he expects to take a calm, thoughtful approach to the captaincy – throwing cups of tea across the locker room or giving teammates the hair dryer treatment is not on the agenda.
“It was nice to be invited. To follow in Sam Winter’s footsteps is a tough ask, but it’s huge to be offered and I died laughing,” Ayrton said.
“We have a leadership group and it’s up to us to lead by example. We want to promote positive rugby and encourage the boys to play with a bit of freedom.
“I’ll try not to say too much and hope the actions speak on the pitch.
“I have other people speaking for me because it’s good to hear it from other players rather than just one voice, so we can share responsibility.”
One player the captain won’t be leading into battle this season is his older brother Mike after retiring alongside Winter, Sam Coleman and Declan Caulfield this summer.
The siblings moved to Stortford from National League One rivals Cambridge in 2019, although the new skipper was in the youth ranks at Silver Leys before leaving for college.
“[Mike] has been doing it since he was little. I think he got his first cap in men’s rugby when he was 17 and he’s 30 now, so other than that year of Covid he’s been playing Nat 1 pretty much the whole time.” said Ayrton.
“His body was just tired and I think he needed a break. Others who retired at the same time made it a bit easier for him. He will always be here and supporting.”
As well as the outgoing players, Stortford also saw Seb Brownhill (Cambridge), Harrison King (Hong Kong Scottish), Tom Lewis (Letchworth) and Alfie Orchard (Traveller) leave.
Ayrton believes assistant head coaches Marcus Cattell and Tom Coleman have recruited well over the summer and he wants the club to continue to do well in order to remain an attractive destination.
“With the boys who left or retired, we filled in the holes pretty well,” Ayrton said. “It’s good to see young guys come through because it’s not just our first team – we have such a good wider core of us in the first and second teams.
“The club went from Nat 3 to Nat 2 to Nat 1 and we have to respect where the club came from and where it is now.
“The young guys coming in are joining a successful squad and if we keep pushing the standards it will hopefully attract more players.
“Young players, particularly at colt level, when they come to make the move into men’s rugby in the next two years they will hopefully see that Stortford are still doing well in National 1 and that will be the where they want to be.
“That’s the idea and it’s good because there’s always been a family atmosphere. We want to keep that going.”
Stortford supporters have grown accustomed to seeing their team improve as the season progresses and achieve comfortable mid-table finishes in National League One.
But Ayrton wants his team to find a consistent level of performance – both in games and across the campaign – so that they show their full potential.
“The message we’re trying to get across this year is that we want to start fast and finish faster,” said Radleys-sponsored Ayrton.
“We lose too many points in the first 15 minutes and we always catch up. It’s lucky that we have such good support at home and can find the strength within ourselves to come back.
“If we could take the motivation and the inspiration that we have at home when we play away, hopefully we will do a bit better this year.
“We don’t want to be late when it comes to Christmas, that would be nice.”
