Finch prepare for nerve-wracking final day

Pete Phillips • Published 31 Aug 2009 10:00 0 Comments

FINCHAMPSTEAD captain Russell Lane wants more of the same from his side this weekend as they prepare for their crunch last day clash against Wokingham.

Finch's hopes of avoiding the drop received a major boost last weekend as they completed an impressive five-wicket win against Basingstoke & NH.

And Lane wants a repeat performance against Wokingham this Saturday as the Division Two West relegation battle goes to the wire.

With Finch entertaining already relegated Wokingham and Basingstoke travelling to Thame Town in another basement battle, any one of three teams could drop into the final relegation spot on the final Saturday of the season.

"It's amazing how it's come down to a three way scrap on the last Saturday of the season," admitted Lane.

"With Basingstoke playing Thame, a decent draw should make us safe, but we want to get the win and finish a disappointing season on a high. If we win it doesn't matter about the other game.

"It's not going to be easy as I'm sure Wokingham would love to beat us but we've started to click in recent weeks and I'm confident we can finish strongly this weekend.

"I've said all season that we've got a good team but we just haven't fired consistently throughout the year. But if we play like we did last weekend then we should be okay."

Finchampstead certainly proved to be too strong for Basingstoke last weekend as they produced a fine all round team display.

Despite missing the experienced Simon Hards, Finch's bowlers soon had Basingstoke in trouble after putting the hosts into bat.

Basingstoke were quickly reduced to 85-5 and it took some impressive lower order batting from Daniel Coombs (35), Chris Froud (33), Joe McDonnell (42no) and Nigel Williamson (29no) to see the home side up to 228-7 off their 60 overs.

Finch shared the wickets around, with Anthony Parson (2-69) and Jonny Gaffney (2-36) chipping in.

Finch lost Arron Todd early in their reply but Lane (82) and Matt Jones (68) then put on 144 for the second wicket to put their side in the driving seat.

Both players departed in quick succession, but the platform had been set and Steve Brogan (27), Sam Cheetham (19) and Simon Bell (13no) saw Finch home on 229-5 inside 44 overs. Jonathon Bradley was the pick of the Basingstoke attack with 4-87.

"It was a decent track but our bowlers consistently put it in the right areas which meant they finished about 30 runs short of a par score," Lane said.

"Me and Matt then put on almost 150 for the second wicket and that took the game away from them."

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