Published: Wednesday, 29th July, 2009 11:48am

Barr predicting photo finish in title race

by Ben Steele

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DAVID Barr has urged his Reading side to get the positive result from this Saturday's derby with Finchampstead that will keep them in the leading pack in Division Two West.

The Sonning Lane side were unable to make it a hat-trick of wins as they slumped to a 113-run defeat at Aston Rowant last weekend.

And they make the short trip to Finchampstead, just four points and one place ahead of their hosts in the standings.

However, Barr believes that a positive result will keep his side in contention in one of the tightest promotion races for years.

He said: "There are still six games to go and even though it was not the best result on Saturday we are right in the chasing pack.

"Every team will suffer defeats in such a tight division, so you can't overreact.

"But we are at Finchampstead this weekend, who we drew against back at the start of the season.

"I would expect another very hard-fought contest because they are in a similar sort of position in the table to us.

"We will see what happens, but we are hoping to play well, get some of the rub of the green, and hopefully pick up a result to keep us in contention."

To get that result, Reading's batting line-up will need to rediscover the form they have produced for most of the season in the derby clash.

They were skittled for a season low of 94 at Sonning Lane last weekend in pursuit of a very reachable target of 208.

And Barr admitted: "It was one of those days that makes cricket a funny game.

"They bowled a lot of good balls and we nicked them, whereas we bowled a lot of good balls and they missed them

"Their score was based on a really good stand between Alex Jewell and the skipper Wesley Morrick.

"But even then Jewell played and missed a few times and if he had nicked one of those we might have been chasing substantially fewer."

Reading went into Saturday's clash in confident mood on the back of consecutive wins over high-flyers Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross and with the knowledge they had comfortably beaten Aston Rowant earlier in the season.

Barr won the toss and put Rowant in, and Tim Miles gave them a quick start with 31 off 25 balls.

But Neil Saker (2-53) and David Hartley took three quick wickets as Rowant stumbled to 53-3.

But Jewell (72) and Morrick (61) then came together to compile an excellent stand of 122 for the fourth wicket and seemingly provide a launchpad for the visitors to really kick on after lunch.

However, it was Hartley who was the star turn after the interval as he prompted a Rowant collapse which saw them lose their last seven wickets for 32 runs.

The evergreen leggie's stunning return of 7-55 from 16 overs meant Rowant were dismissed for 207 - the sort of target Reading have chased down in their recent wins.

However, Miles (3-21) and Morrick (3-40) ripped through the hosts' top order to leave them wobbling at 29-5.

Last week's hero Shelvin Gumbs and Paul Turk (both 32) launched a rescue mission with a sixth wicket stand of 49.

But when they departed in quick succession - Turk when unluckily run out backing up - the end came quickly as the final five wickets fell for just 16 runs, with Ross McAdam (11no) the only other man to reach double figures.

Despite that disappointing showing with the willow, Barr remained philosophical about his side's efforts.

He said: "Full credit to them really. The opening bowlers did very well and bowled some good deliveries which reduced us to 9-4 and it was always going to be a struggle from there.

"We had fought back well with the ball, mainly through David Hartley, because from 175-3 it looked like they would set 250-plus.

"Generally speaking we have performed OK but they should take the credit."

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