Promotion hopefuls Sarisbury gear up for crucial finale

The Allotment Road outfit travel to Bournemouth with their promotion ambitions hanging by a thread after a painful defeat to Liphook & Ripsley last week.

Sarisbury must beat their title-chasing rivals and hope leaders Hook & Newnham slip up against Basingstoke & North Hants.

It is a frustration for Journeaux, who saw his table-topping side crash to a seven-wicket home defeat last weekend.

The skipper said: ‘We certainly have an interesting final day with four teams in contention to win it.

‘All we can do is go to Bournemouth, give it our best shot and see what happens.

‘If we manage that then we have to hope it is enough.

‘The right result will put us there or thereabouts.

‘To achieve it, though, we will have to be a lot better than in our last game.

‘This particularly applies to our batting.

‘We have to value our wickets a bit more.

‘We have to apply ourselves and make sure we put runs on the board.

‘When we have lost this summer this has tended to be our weakness.

‘You can’t win a game in the first 15 overs but you can as sure as heck lose one.’

Meanwhile, Sarisbury are looking forward to their Twenty20 Cup final appearance against Havant at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday.

The visitors are boosted by the return of Dan Goldstraw, Phil Jewell and Ricky Rawlins.

Elsewhere, Portsmouth end their season against Andover at St Helen’s.

Captain Rich Locke is happy his team have consolidated their position in division one.

‘We have achieved what we set out to do,’ he said.

‘After making a good start, though, I feel we could have done better.

‘At times we have left a bit out on the park.

‘We have a good young squad of players, though.’

Locke, Matt Shaw and Will Smitherman are back in for the final game.