Williams is backing his side to survive

Falkland could confirm their Thames Valley Division 1 status this weekend

FALKLAND first team captain Jason Williams is confident that his squad can confirm their Division 1 status in the Thames Valley Cricket League.

His side slipped to a five-wicket defeat against leaders Cookham Dean on Saturday and, despite losing, the Falkland captain was content with the performance.

“Although I am very disappointed with the result, there are more positives than negatives to come out the game,” said Williams.

Falkland struggled to get going after opening the batting as none of their batsmen could manage more than 20 runs.

Jimmy Shaw, Nick Benwell, Daminda Kolugala and Ben Piper all scored 13 runs for Falkland, while Bobby Malik top-scored with 16.

Williams said: “For the first time this year, our pitch was not the normal flat track that we were expecting and instead started turning from ball one.

“As in the games against Reading and Slough this year, our batsman just did not apply themselves against a turning ball.

“That said, Cookham Dean really struggled as well,” added Williams.

Falkland finished all out on 109, but their opposition also made hard work of it, despite good knocks from Tom Fray (35) and Nadir Mehmood (29).

Williams said: “We believed we had Mehmood out first ball, which would have left them in deep trouble at 23-4, but him and Fray took the game away from us.

“As it turned out a score of 150 would have been highly competitive, but we just fell short and not for the first time this season.”

Malik again did well with the ball, taking 3-29 from 10 overs.

Williams said: “Bobby Malik was again our standout performer with the ball and he continues to impress.

“The only negative was not getting more than five points in the game, but with Henley and Reading again losing they only made up four and three points respectively.”

Falkland now face Boyne Hill this weekend and Williams is confident his side can get the result they need to avoid relegation from the top division.

He said: “Availability is not great this week, but the players who have been picked know how important the game is and will give 100 per cent.

“We will mix the batting up a bit this week and see what damage we can do and if results and bonus points go our way we could well be safe come Saturday night.”