Keep the faith urges skipper (From Dorset Echo)

Keep the faith urges skipper

8:45am Friday 3rd July 2009

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CAPTAIN Martyn Richards has not given up hope on retaining the Dorset Premier League crown.

Despite seeing his Dorchester side lie sixth in the table, 3.34 behind leaders Parley, Richards believes that an impressive run of victories, starting with tomorrow’s visit of Wimborne & Colehill (1.30pm), could still see the county town outfit crowned champions once again.

However, he is fully aware that to do so, Dorchester will need to begin the second half of the current campaign in a much brighter fashion than the start of the first half.

He said: “We lost to Wimborne & Colehill on the opening day in what was a very bizarre game, we just couldn’t quite put out finger on why we lost.

“We need to get the second half of the season off to a better start than the first half as there’s still a lot of cricket to be played and we still fancy our chances of finishing top if we can go on a decent run.

“A lot of the top sides are beating each other while a few of the lower sides are causing one or two upsets, so there’s everything to play for.”

Dave Maslen and Quenton Miller are both unavailable for the visit of Wimborne & Colehill but Richards is delighted to welcome back Adam Rendell and all-rounder Dan Belt.

However, the skipper is sweating on the fitness of young bowler James Dunham. He added: “We’ve got an injury worry over James. He’s got a problem with one of his fingers so we’ll have to see how he is.”

Tomorrow’s opponents, despite only winning two games, have racked up some impressive totals with the bat.

And Richards is wary of their biggest threat. He said: “Wimborne have scored a lot of runs this season so we’ll have to score well ourselves. But if we can bowl and field to our potential then hopefully we can restrict them to a low score, whether they bat first or second.”

Dorchester: Richards, Tweddle, Gerety, Haynes, Belt, Rendell, Waite, Herbert, Pryce, Morley, Dunham.

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