IT’S a really tough schedule at the moment and I think that there are a lot of sore bodies all around county cricket right now.

It really is hectic at the moment. We played against Essex on Tuesday and they had to travel home to play again at 11am on Wednesday. Worcestershire had a floodlit game on Tuesday and were back playing the morning after too.

But it’s just one of those things that you have to get on with.

It wasn’t really that strange playing against Essex in the One-Day Cup this week. You get to know most of the lads around county cricket anyway and they all know that your job is score runs and take wickets against whoever you’re playing against.

I did play nicely but it’s a shame that we didn’t get to something like 300 runs in that game.

I think every team has won a few games and lost a few games so far in the competition. The top four go through from the group and we’re in there at the moment, which is positive.

We had a big game against Warwickshire yesterday and hopefully we were able to get a good result to leave us in a good position with two games to go.

I think that I’ve probably batted as well as I have in my life this season.

Even earlier in the season, I knew that I was playing well but I just wasn’t getting the scores to go with it – I kept getting out for 20s and 30s.

I’ve never doubted myself at all and I’m our leading run-scorer and wicket-taker in the One-Day Cup, which shows that I have been playing well.

Goatacre are through to the semi-finals of the Village Cup and getting to a final at Lord’s is a great achievement for any team, in any competition.

It’s exciting for them and like I’ve said before, if they keep doing what they have done to get to this stage, they’ve got every chance of winning their semi-final on Sunday.

I think that it’s probably a good thing that they came back the way they did last weekend.

To go from 23-5 to 231 is great and if they find themselves in trouble again, they know that they have what it takes to get out of those kinds of situations.