DAN MARLES says second place is now the aim after Finchampstead got back to winning ways at the first time of asking with victory over Burnham.
But they will travel to Banbury tomorrow with a makeshift 11 as Craig Hodges, Anthony Parson and Ed Oliver all join the absent list with Tommie Predgen among those stepping up from the 2s.
Defeat to Great and Little Tew last time out left skipper Marles fretting over a potential relegation scrap, but the comfortable six-wicket success against Burnham on Saturday has lifted Finches up to second in the table.
Despite their high position, reigning champions Finchampstead are in fact still closer to the bottom two (36 points clear) than they are to leaders Henley (39 points adrift) with three games to play.
But Marles says the weekend success has eased any fears of the drop.
“It will be really, really difficult for us to get anywhere near winning the league,” the skipper told The Wokingham Paper.
“Realistically Henley are probably going to win the league but we just want to finish second.
“I think we deserve to be second. We said as a group of lads on Saturday, we’ve got that aim to look to be second.
“If we can keep pushing them we will, but that’s got to be the aim now. It’s quite funny how a game of cricket can change things.
“Last week we were thinking oh no, we could be near relegation and now we’re second.”
Burnham, who have been relegated, won the toss and made a steady start with the bat.
But once Finches found the breakthrough, they made light work of the job, bowling out the visitors for 186 with Matt Carter (4-31) and JJ Dewes (2-40) the pick of the bowlers.
And there was no drama in the chase, winning by six wickets with six overs in hand thanks
to good knocks from Andrew House (57) and Billy Rogers (43no).
“We played the right cricket from ball one,” said Marles.
“It was proper cricket that we’ve been missing for the last few weeks.
“The bowlers were fantastic on Saturday. That’s the wonders of having so many all-rounders in the side, you can chop and change.
“With the bat, Housey has been fantastic all year and he got 57 and then Billy at the end was good to finish the game off.
“A few lads in the middle chipped in as well, which is an ideal chase really. Four down with about seven overs to go, pretty easy stuff which is good to see.”
The knock of 57 from House keeps him as leading runs scorer for Finch this season.
The opener is now on 561, ahead of Rogers (494) and Marles (477) and the skipper says there is an internal battle for top spot.
He said: “Housey played a game when it was raining but he got 85 not out and then none of us got a go, so there’s a bit of dispute between if it’s allowed or not!
“But he’s up there and we’ll do the best we can to chase him down.
“We’ve got Dan (Lincoln) and Greg (Smith) too, so the batting has been really good this year, really strong and that’s something we’ll look to build on next year.”
Finch travel to face fourth-placed Banbury on Saturday without Oliver, Parson, Dan Lincoln and Hodges as well as longer term injured players Sukhi Kang and Greg Smith.
FINCHAMPSTEAD XI v Banbury: Dan Marles (c), Simon Bell (wk), Matt Carter, Jandre Coetzee, Adam Dewes, JJ Dewes, Andrew House, Billy Rogers, Tommie Predgen, James Woodford, Max Uttley.
