Exasperated ! David Griffiths is Basingstoke's new captain. BASINGSTOKE and North Hants have their third skipper of the season with David Griffiths taking over ahead of South Wilts’ visit to May’s Bounty, 11am.
Mitch Stokes, who started the summer as captain, is taking a Sabbatical and concentrating on halving his golf handicap. Ben Thane took over the mantle, but a bad ankle injury is set to rule him out for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer, so Griffiths has taken on the job.
The former Hampshire & Kent man will be hoping to steer the Bountymen away from the basement of the Southern League Premier Division. In what will be a second half relegation dogfight with Alton and Bournemouth, in which only one side will be relegated.
Basingstoke did not help themselves with this aim last weekend, as they lost at Bournemouth by six wickets.
New captain Griffiths said: "Against Bournemouth we batted well and got over 200, but for once this season we did not bowl well and this cost us."
"We will take the positives from the game in our batting and now look to combine this with our bowling this week.
He added: "I am confidence in the players we have at the club and last year we beat every team in this league.
"We still have plenty of time with only game gone in the second half of the season. We have to knuckle down and get some results."
Griffiths certainly added some much needed spark to the Bounty in last night’s Guy Jewell Cup T20 semi-final victory over Hook & Newnham Basics, who had carried the trophy on consecutive open deck bus trips around town.
South Wilts, meanwhile, go into the match on a high after skittling Alton for a meagre 44 at Bemerton last week.
Reflecting on the nine-wicket win over Alton, South Wilts skipper Tom Morton said: “The ball was swinging, which was perfect for Luke Evans and Arthur Godsal.
“Both bowled with a great deal of control and skill, making the Alton batters play pitched up balls on a regular basis. We have seen spells like this before from Luke, but this was a spell from Arthur that we knew he was capable of just hadn’t seen in South Wilts colours.
“We needed a positive response after a month of frustration with a couple of poor results and rained off matches, so it was great that two players stepped up from the outset and delivered this.”
* Bashley (Rydal) will be without front line pace bowler Dan Goodey for the coming weeks, the Devon Minor Counties man having suffered a side strain. But Josh Digby is back for the Hampshire Academy match at the BCG after running the coconut shy at his school fete last Saturday when Bash won at Burridge.
Mitch Stokes, who started the summer as captain, is taking a Sabbatical and concentrating on halving his golf handicap. Ben Thane took over the mantle, but a bad ankle injury is set to rule him out for at least a couple of weeks, if not longer, so Griffiths has taken on the job.
The former Hampshire & Kent man will be hoping to steer the Bountymen away from the basement of the Southern League Premier Division. In what will be a second half relegation dogfight with Alton and Bournemouth, in which only one side will be relegated.
Basingstoke did not help themselves with this aim last weekend, as they lost at Bournemouth by six wickets.
New captain Griffiths said: "Against Bournemouth we batted well and got over 200, but for once this season we did not bowl well and this cost us."
"We will take the positives from the game in our batting and now look to combine this with our bowling this week.
He added: "I am confidence in the players we have at the club and last year we beat every team in this league.
"We still have plenty of time with only game gone in the second half of the season. We have to knuckle down and get some results."
Griffiths certainly added some much needed spark to the Bounty in last night’s Guy Jewell Cup T20 semi-final victory over Hook & Newnham Basics, who had carried the trophy on consecutive open deck bus trips around town.
South Wilts, meanwhile, go into the match on a high after skittling Alton for a meagre 44 at Bemerton last week.
Reflecting on the nine-wicket win over Alton, South Wilts skipper Tom Morton said: “The ball was swinging, which was perfect for Luke Evans and Arthur Godsal.
“Both bowled with a great deal of control and skill, making the Alton batters play pitched up balls on a regular basis. We have seen spells like this before from Luke, but this was a spell from Arthur that we knew he was capable of just hadn’t seen in South Wilts colours.
“We needed a positive response after a month of frustration with a couple of poor results and rained off matches, so it was great that two players stepped up from the outset and delivered this.”
* Bashley (Rydal) will be without front line pace bowler Dan Goodey for the coming weeks, the Devon Minor Counties man having suffered a side strain. But Josh Digby is back for the Hampshire Academy match at the BCG after running the coconut shy at his school fete last Saturday when Bash won at Burridge.
