BEFORE the season started we sat down as a group and mapped out what our goals were for the year, top of the list for everyone in that dressing room was promotion to Division One of the County Championship. Five months on and we’re sat right where we need to be to make it happen.
It’s a bit different in Division Two this year, there’s a shuffle happening between the divisions that sees three sides promoted at the end of the season. A couple of strong performances from the boys saw us move to fourth before the Blast break, so we’re well poised for a late promotion push into one of those three spots.
It’s in our hands now, it’s a pretty simple equation, actually – we’ve just got to get a couple more wins on the board in our last few games. We had a quiet start to the season but our place on the table never really reflected the kind of cricket we played. We’ve stayed in the hunt all the way, sure we might not have recorded as many wins as we’d have liked, but only losing two games and drawing the rest always meant we never fell behind the pack.
Losing Ricardo Vasconcelos for the rest of the season is a big blow, he’s been in superb form this year and a rock at the top of the order. It’s always going to be tough to replace your leading run scorer, particularly one who was on track for a 1,000 run season, but there’s a few blokes who are champing at the bit to pick up where Vasco left off.
Ben Sanderson has deserved to take bags of wickets all year and it’s great to see him starting to be rewarded. You always feel in the game keeping to him, I’ve never known a bowler to beat the outside edge so consistently. He chalked up a career best performance of 10/55 against Sussex and I’d say he’s got a fair few more wickets left in him this year too.
This is a really important time for the club, a couple of wins in the next few weeks could have a huge impact on how the club looks over the next few years. It’s time for everyone in the squad to play their part, stand tall and get the job done.
Adam Rossington
