Cheshire name championship squad

Cheshire have named a strong squad to face Wales

Defending Minor Counties champions Cheshire have named a 12-man squad for their forthcoming three-day Championship match against Wales Minor Counties at Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club, starting on Sunday 22 June.

All-rounder Jason Whittaker and Guy Emmett are the only two players unavailable from the one-day side which slipped to a heavy loss against Devon in the MCCA Knockout Trophy quarter-finals over the weekend.

Included in the Championship squad are Hyde duo Tom Young and Daniel Berry while Neston all-rounder Chris Finegan has also been handed an opportunity as Cheshire look to build on their opening victory away to Wiltshire.

"I'd like to see us bounce back from the way we played against Devon," revealed Cheshire skipper Andy Hall. "That was a one day game, but we know we can bat a lot better than that.

"We showed against Wiltshire that we can get runs and bowl out a side twice in three days, it would be great if we could have a similar performance against Wales.

"Wales will be a tough side, I'm sure they'll have a lot of Glamorgan academy players in their team, so it's going to be a tough test for us."

Cheshire enjoyed a successful campaign last term and had the honour of being unbeaten all season in domestic competitions, with Hall stressing how important it is not to slip up at this early stage of the campaign.

His county have six three-day games to play this year in the Western Division, but the captain warned: "You can't really afford to lose any games. Even losing one might jeopardise your chances of winning the title, it's that close because the standard is so high.

"We need a good start, you do in any match really, but if we can get another win under our belts that would be a really solid start to the season."

Wales drew their opening championship match with Dorset after heavy rain virtually washed out the whole match, with just 20 balls bowled in three days.

But with former championship winners Berkshire and Shropshire having both won their opening matches to make things level-pegging at the top, Hall and Cheshire could give them a welcome lead at the summit.

"We've now got to pick ourselves up and try and continue in the rich vein of form we started the Championship," said Cheshire team manager Sandy Scrimgeour.

Cheshire 13-man squad: Warren Goodwin (Chester Boughton Hall), Danny Leech (Oulton Park), Andy Hall (Bramhall, captain), Ben Spendlove (Oulton Park), Nathan Dumelow (Oulton Park), James Duffy (Hyde), Matthew Dawson (Bramhall, wicketkeeper), Chris Finegan (Neston), Daniel Woods (Hyde), Adam Syddall (Bowdon), Tom Young (Hyde), Daniel Berry (Hyde). Scorer: Janet Herbert.