We are pleased to announce the signing of another first year scholar for the forthcoming season, defender Blaine Hudson.

Having decided to leave Norwich City at the end of last season, we immediately contacted Blaine and he joined up with us for our tour to France in May. He impressed throughout the three days with his attitude and showed great potential on the pitch. Blaine is a 6ft 5ins tall centre back who capped his fine performances with two headed goals in our final game of the tournament against Hajduk Split of Croatia.

Within a day, he looked like he had been part of our squad all season and it was an easy decision to offer him a scholarship. Having already booked a holiday, Blaine will join us for pre-season training from Monday 14th July.

In addition to Blaine's signing, we have several trialists aiming to claim our final two scholarship places. Ant Daver, Andy Brennan and Gerard Molloy from last season's Under 16s will be joined by centre forwards Joe Hutchinson, from Grimsby Town, and James Lane from Fulbourn Falcons.

Next weekend we also welcome Stephen Last from Lourdes Celtic in Dublin. Stephen, a centre back or right back, was recommended to us by Nottingham Forest and played a trial game for Liverpool last season. He has been capped five times in his age group by the Republic of Ireland and has several much larger clubs than Cambridge United interested in acquiring his services. However, after visiting Stephen and his family in Dublin last month, we are delighted that he has agreed to spend 10 days with us in between his international commitments.

Our pre-season programme starts on Monday 30th June, with the players being re-tested and these results compared to the end of last season. We then have the following fixtures until the start of the Ridgeons League on Saturday 9th August:

Wed 16th July v Rushden & Diamonds (H), 1pm ko

Fri 18th to Wed 23rd July - tour to the Czech Republic

Tues 29th July v Diss (A), 7.45pm ko

Fri 1st August v Wrexham (A), 2pm ko
Sat 2nd August v Tranmere (A), 11am ko

Mon 4th August v Cornard (A), 7.45pm ko
Tues 5th August v Cambridge University Press (A), 6.30pm ko

The later matches are paired up to reflect the squad size of approximately 20 scholars plus our three third Years of Sam Beagle, Rory McAuley and Lewis Carr.

[Three Scholars Earn Third Year]

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