Walbridge still haunted by Shropshire loss (From Bournemouth Echo)

Walbridge still haunted by Shropshire loss

6:39pm Wednesday 2nd September 2009 in

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SEAN Walbridge hailed Dorset’s improvement, but admitted he still has nightmares about the game that cost his side the Minor Counties Championship.

Dorset brought the curtain down on their 2009 Western Division campaign with a dramatic four-run victory over Wiltshire at Dean Park last week – their third championship victory of a highly-impressive season.

But despite being in the title mix following wins over Oxfordshire and Berkshire, Dorset threw away their chance of silverware with an abject |performance at home to Shropshire at the beginning of August.

After being dismissed for a paltry 71 in their first innings, Dorset fared only slightly better second time around, scoring 157, and the visitors cruised to a 97-run win.

Walbridge, whose side were held to a draw by Devon and saw their trip to Cheshire abandoned without a ball being bowled, said: “The pivotal game was the Shropshire game where we just batted poorly throughout the match and if we’d batted better in that one, we could well have been champions.

“But you can’t live your life by ifs, buts and maybes and the blame lies solely with us.

“We didn’t get the runs in that game and it cost us the championship.

“In terms of our cricket throughout the year, though, there has definitely been an improvement.

“We’ve tried to be on the front foot throughout and have shown good resilience.

“The result against Wiltshire showed what a great deal of character there is in the squad and we finished fourth, one better than last year, and we’ve managed to get more points than last year as well so we’re moving in the right direction.

“We’ll work on a few things over the winter – it’s obvious we need to score more heavily in the first innings and if we can build on that for next season, it should be an exciting time next year.”