Malmesbury 118-9, Hinton Charterhouse 119-6 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Malmesbury 118-9, Hinton Charterhouse 119-6

Glos/Wilts Two: Furious Malmesbury captain Ed Shellard is threatening to drop much of his team the week before a must win game against Cinderford St John.

A month ago Shellard had targeted a minimum of three wins in four weeks against teams in the bottom half of the division but they have so far recorded one with a season-defining game away to bottom-of-the-table Cinderford on Saturday.

Now Shellard is looking to shake the team up before the crucial game with Tom McNeal set to play his first game of the season after hitting 102 for the second team last week in his first game since returning from university.

Richard Gaunt and Richard Mosdell are also set to return with Shellard about to introduce an extra nets session each week.

"People are not practising so they cannot play well when they go out," said the skipper. "If people don't come to training they will be dropped or at least fall down the batting order.

"To be fair the batsmen have not been bowled but are being caught and that is because they are out of practise."

Chris Hurst and James Pearce-Smith combined took the score 29 before the first wicket fell. But Pearce-Smith and Phil Cavey followed for just one extra run.

Similarly three wickets fell for just 17 runs towards the end of the innings and Malmesbury produced too slow a run rate.

Malmesbury did however produce a good innings with the bowl with Richard Jefferson and Phil Cook taking three wickets each.

Shellard said: "It was not quite as bad as last week, but 30-3, 68-5 and 100-7 are hardly likely to put bums on seats.

"There is a basic inability by most batters to get in, stay in, and accumulate, and then use the overs left to boost the score.

"There is a definite lack of placing singles, working the ball, calling, running, and generally supporting each other.

"There are a lot of batsmen caught playing poor or indifferent shots, so shot selection is lacking.

"All this means that the excellent pace and bounce of the pitch goes to waste, whereas slip catching practice seems to be the normal give away dismissal.

"A change of personnel and position in the order now has to happen.

"Once is poor, twice is abysmal, but seven weeks on the trot of poor batting means major surgery to technique is now demanded," said the angry skipper.

Shellard was far happier with his sides bowling. "The bowling was good, though a few harsh wides were given," he said.

"Wickets were taken and Hinton were 80-6. It was only ever going to take one reasonable partnership, plus a dozen extras, to get Hinton to a win, and they eventually crawled their way over the finishing line.

"Phil Cook bowled well, Rich Jefferson bowled with improved pace and good late swing, and Charlie Langton worked up to good pace and deserved two late wickets, but was denied. Another 50 to 60 runs, say 175, would have made the contest very much more one sided, but in Malmesbury's, not Hinton's favour.''