WILTSHIRE CCC started their pre-season preparations over the Easter weekend with three friendly matches.

The match on the Saturday away against Frocester was cancelled as the ground was unfit but the games on the Sunday and Monday against Gloucestershire 2nd and Dorset at Beverbrook, Calne went ahead.

They resulted in a win against Gloucestershire by 79 runs and a defeat by six wickets to Dorset.

Wiltshire won the toss against Gloucestershire in a 40-over a side match and were all out for 200. Michael Coles scored 62, Neil Clark 47 and Steve Bullen 40.

In reply, the young Gloucestershire side found runs hard to come by on a slow wicket and were all out for 121. Ed Young took 3-22 and Nick Harrison 3-14.

On Monday against Dorset in a 50-over a side match, Wiltshire again chose to bat. After a good opening stand of 49 between Ed Kilbee (15) and Uzi Qureshi (17), they showed their problems with dealing with spin in the middle overs and collapsed to 104-9 before a last-wicket stand of 44 between Steve Warner, who top scored with 21 and Tom Foley, took the score to 148 all out.

Dorset spinners Tom Hicks (2-22), Sam Thomson (4-20) and Jake Lintott (2-6) did the damage.

In reply, Dorset had little trouble in reaching their target with 19 overs remaining for the loss of four wickets. Jake Lintott scored 63, with Tom Foley taking 2-33 for Wiltshire.

Wiltshire’s final warm-up friendly is on Sunday against Berkshire at North Maidenhead CC starting at 11am when they will attempt to retain the Marlborough Cup.