WILTSHIRE coach Tom Morton was impressed by his side’s attitude against Berkshire at the weekend, despite being on the wrong end of a 75-run loss.

Morton’s troops failed the chase down the 193 required to claim their first Unicorns Championship Western Division win of the season against a strong Berkshire side, who have won the three-day competition for the past two seasons.

The result means Wiltshire remain bottom of the league having played two fixtures, securing 10 bonus points.

Despite this, Morton has backed his men to return to form later in the summer as they now face a two-week break before taking on Cornwall at St Austell.

“We’re disappointed with the loss, obviously,” said Morton.

“But Berkshire are an incredibly strong side and we always knew it was going to be tough.

“We were playing with an inexperienced team so we knew from the start it was going to be a difficult game.

“But overall, I felt we played well. We got ourselves into a position where in the last innings we could’ve beat them.”

Wiltshire’s cause wasn’t helped by the accurate bowling of former Middlesex star Chris Peploe, who ripped through the home side’s middle order in the second innings – taking five wickets for just 19 runs.

Peploe’s form denied Wiltshire any hope of reaching their 193 target as they were eventually bowled out for 118 on a green wicket.

Morton said: “Chris (Peploe) has dominated minor counties cricket for a few years now.

“He did that again at the weekend. It was pleasing to see us take them on and Chris told me after the game that it was the closest he’d come to losing a three-day game with Berkshire.

“From that respect it was pleasing, but at the same time disappointing we couldn’t finish the job.”

Morton also praised staff at Corsham Cricket Club for the work put in to make the weekend’s fixture an entertaining one.

“The wicket was really good at Corsham, especially considering the amount of dry weather we’ve had,” he said.

“They left a bit of grass on the wicket, and that was the right thing to do as it held everything together.”