IT IS great that we can welcome back batsman Neil Clark after a prolonged spell on the sidelines.

Neil is back and fit and it will be good for him to play against Shropshire, particularly after the innings that he played a couple of years ago which won us the championship up at Whitchurch.

It will be great to have Neil in and around the squad again, we have missed him a little bit this year.

He has been in regular contact with me, just to see how he is getting on and was hoping to get back two games into the three-day championship but it has taken him a little bit more time.

By his own admission, he felt that he has not been fully fit so he has been honest with himself and now he has come to me saying he is fit so he is in the side for the final championship match this weekend.

He is getting runs at Potterne, the last couple of weeks he has got a couple of scores, which brings him into the game and gives him a bit of confidence.

We are going in with a bowler light but we have added to the batting with Neil coming in.

We have a number of seam bowlers around the county but Andy Carrol is not available due to work commitments and Jake Roberts is not 100 per cent fit with a bit of a hamstring injury.

He has started to bowl his 10 overs on a Saturday but reports back say that he doesn’t look 100 per cent fit so I think he would struggle in a three-day game.

Steve Warner is also injured so we have been speaking to a couple of other players but we have got enough diversity in the team to get over the issues with the bowlers.

We’ve got two seamers, three spinners and Ashur Morrison and Mike Reynolds can both bowl a bit.

Shropshire are doing well in the championship but I hear they have just been deducted some points so it doesn’t look like they will be winning the championship now, it might make it more difficult for them to win it now.

It is a shame because they have got a decent side, however, we’ll approach it in the same way we would have done and we are full of confidence at the moment with a young team doing well.