Chesterfield's acting skipper hopes to emulate dad’s success

The 21-year-old opening batsman has taken over as acting captain of Chesterfield's first team.

Westwell is the official vice-captain but has stepped into the lead role with skipper Harry Wilmott on the sidelines with a knee injury.

Five years ago Westwell's father Simon was captain of the Queen's Park club's second team when they won promotion as champions of the Derbyshire League's Division Four North.

Now Luke is aiming for a similarly successful run with the firsts. He has been vice-captain since Wilmott was appointed skipper just over a year ago.

He took charge on the field in one game at Duffield when Wilmott was injured and did the same when the skipper suffered his knee injury during a midweek evening match at Belper Meadows.

This time Wilmott is facing a spell on the sidelines and there was some debate as to whether Westwell was too young to take on the lead role.

He said: "I had a meeting with Harry and Nigel Mallender the Club chairman. We had a good chat about it and it was decided that I would do it.

"I’m young but have been at the Club longer than the rest of the team apart from Alex Hibbert, who used to be captain and is now my vice-captain."

Westwell - whose younger brother Ewan has established himself as a regular in the seconds this season - began his cricket career at Ashover but switched to Chesterfield nine years ago and worked his way through the ranks.

He played for the under-15, under-17 and under-19 sides before graduating through the senior third and second teams to the firsts.

Along the way he played for Derbyshire age-group sides - always as an opening batsman. "I like facing the fast bowlers," he explained.

He has been in prime batting form recently and he scored 70 in his first game in charge, a vital win in a cliff-hanger top-of-the-table clash at Belper Meadows.

That took his tally to 289 runs at an average of 72.25 in six successive weekend league and cup matches.

He also found being an opener helped in his new role because at that stage of the game he could concentrate on his batting.

"I want to lead from the front with the bat," he said. "And it was important that we showed we can beat sides like Belper."

The following day he led Chesterfield to victory in two T20 games, booking a place in the County finals day next month.

"My first two games in charge - and they both went to the wire," he reflected.

At the mid-point of the season Chesterfield are in with a clear chance of promotion from Division One.

Westwell, who is a studying aircraft and aeronautical engineering at Sheffield University, found it nerve-racking taking charge for the first time with so many experienced players in the side.

But he said: "The lads have been great and have been giving advice and Alex is my go-to as vice-captain."

He now has a clear double target for the rest of the campaign - to keep piling on the runs and help Chesterfield back into the top flight of Derbyshire club cricket.