Time to show we're good enough - Lane

Ben Steele • Published 26 Aug 2009 16:00 0 Comments

CAPTAIN Russell Lane has urged his Finchampstead side to prove that they belong in the Home Counties League as their battle to avoid relegation reaches a critical stage.

Finch suffered a potentially crucial three-wicket reverse at the hands of main relegation rivals Thame Town on Saturday to leave them staring down the barrel.

They now have to overturn a 15 point deficit on Saturday's opponents in the last two games to avoid slipping into the Thames Valley League for the first time since league reorganisation in 2000.

Saturday's defeat leaves Finch desperate for a positive result from this weekend's trip to Basingstoke & North Hants.

And that could then pave the way for a massive final day derby clash with Wokingham - who may well already be down.

With Thame arguably facing the trickier run-in with games against title-chasing Gerrards Cross and Basingstoke, Lane has challenged his side to put themselves in a position to make the last day derby count.

He said: "It's time for the individuals in this team to prove that they should be playing in this league.

"There is only one way we can give ourselves a fighting chance going into the last day, and that's by getting the 25 points.

"If we don't do that, then there is a chance the Wokingham game might not mean anything."

Finchampstead's hopes of leapfrogging Thame last weekend were undone by an under-par display with the bat.

Only the returning Matt Jones really dug in and produced the big score his team required as the rest of the batting order failed to stay with him.

After Lane had been run out early on, Aaron Todd got up to 26 before giving his wicket away with a poor shot.

The rest of the middle order subsided quickly, apart from a battling 33 from Simon Bell.

Jones continued to play the anchor role and reached a fine century before being run out straight away. And on a good track 217 all out always looked chasable.

Pratik Patel (65) and Michael Beard (41) then gave the Town chase the ideal platform.

And although Sam Cheetham took three quick middle order wickets, Thame eased to victory on 219-7 in the 48th over.

And a disappointed Lane said: "We let ourselves down in the batting department.

"We didn't put ourselves in a good enough position going out into the field because we didn't have enough runs to really attack their batting order.

"Matt Jones was a bit scratchy to start with, but played a nice innings - it was just that no-one could really stay with him and create that big partnership.

"Perhaps we could have bowled a bit more sensibly towards the end of the innings when we started to get into the tail, but it was the batting that was mainly at fault.

"And that is definitely something we'll need to improve upon for this weekend."

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This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 27 Aug 09

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