PUDDLETOWN captain Adam Barrett admits his side faces the “unknown” when they travel to Cranborne tomorrow in County Division Two (1.30pm).

The Cranes have picked up two wins and two defeats to go with a rained off fixture so far, which sees them lie eighth in the table. The key man this season for the hosts has been Oliver Hand, whose 277 runs at an average of 55 sees him top the runscoring charts.

In contrast, Puddletown sit fifth in the table, after three wins and two losses placing them eight points ahead of Cranborne.

Puddletown possess opening bowler Tom Blair, who is the division’s leading wicket-taker with 15 wickets from his 42.4 overs.

Barrett conceded to Echosport that he knows very little about Cranborne.

He said: “I don’t think we have played against Cranborne before, certainly not recently, so this weekend is a bit of an unknown.

“It’s no secret however that I always back the lads to put in a performance, and if we everyone can do exactly that then we’ll be in with a chance.”

Puddletown are set to make two changes from the side that lost to Beaminster, with Laurie Stevens and Mikey Crabb replacing the unavailable Steve Chaldecott and Duncan Macbean.

Barrett said: “Crabby is the leading runscorer in the entire Dorchester Evening League, so he will hopefully take that form into tomorrow.

“Laurie has been bowling well at university and offers us something different with the ball, on top of adding depth to the middle of our batting line-up”

Puddletown: Stevens, Allen, Crabb, Weir, Barrett, Blair, Eastment, Snow, Stevens, Gage, C Chaldecott