We're gutted to be out of the Twenty20 Cup

5:14pm Thursday 3rd July 2008

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Now the Twenty20 is finished I've been playing quite a bit of Second XI cricket.

On Wednesday I had a good game against Surrey in the Second XI Trophy. We won the game and I top scored with 42 and then took six for 40 from my ten overs. Last Thursday, in another game against Surrey, I scored 32 and also picked up the wicket of opener Chris Murtagh.

It's been pretty manic though, our game on Wednesday finished at 8.30pm and then we had to grab something to eat and drive to Surrey in time for another game the next morning.

At least being part of a team means you're spending time with your friends. It's not a sport where you spend lots of time on your own which is a bonus.

With the first team, we're disappointed not to have qualified for the quarter finals of the Twenty20. We had a dramatic tie against Essex who then beat us at Chelmsford in our last game, which meant we finished fourth.

It was a good opportunity for me to play first team cricket so it's annoying. We've now got to make sure we pull our finger out and start winning. We lost to Nottinghamshire this week in the County Championship so we need to concentrate on avoiding relegation from Division 1. To be fair Nottinghamshire are a good side, they're now top of the table. We're really going to have to knuckle down and get ourselves out of trouble. We have the players though to do it so hopefully we'll be okay.

I might be playing for Goatacre on Saturday as I can't make the Hampshire Academy fixture. I was pleased to see they got a much-needed win on Saturday. It would be good to bowl with my brother Brad, he's playing well at the moment.