SOMETIMES when you conspire to get a result from a game that is so badly affected by the rain it can go against you.

That happened to us this week in our Minor Counties Championship Western Division match as we fell to a four-wicket defeat to Cornwall.

The first two days were hit by the heavy rain that we had at the start of the week and meant we could either let the game meander to an inevitable draw or try and make a game of it – which is what we did.

There were so many different scenarios that we had to talk through and it wasn’t easy.

We were either not going to be able to set a high enough target, or they either had too much time or not enough to chase down the score that we set them.

But I have to say we were disappointing with the bat.

At one stage we were 46-4 and only Mike Coles and Tahir Afridi helped us recover.

I know that you could say that the weather would have made things a little tricky, but at Corsham it isn’t an issue.

The Cornwall game was also Mike’s last game with the three-day side as he has decided to retire.

It was sad, he is a good friend of mine, but he has had 13 good years playing for the county.

Now it is all about how we move forward.

Ed Young was Mike’s vice-captain and in the short-term at least he will take over the captaincy with Ashur Morrison becoming his number two.

Ed is away for our next game against Devon in a couple of weeks so this will give Ash the chance to get some experience of captaining the county.

When the season is over we will ask the lads to show an expression of interest in becoming the captain and then we will sit down with the ones who have and go from there.

In terms of who takes his place in the side, well, we have got a good depth in the squad so it is all about someone stepping up to the plate.