COUNTIES CRICKET Dorset eyes on National Trophy final

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Created on Saturday, 21 June 2025 08:14

Last Updated on Sunday, 22 June 2025 10:44

Published on Saturday, 21 June 2025 08:14

Written by PAUL BOLTON Cricket Correspondent

Dorset head coach Paul Lawrence believes today’s National Counties Trophy semi-final against Berkshire will be a good yardstick to assess the progress his side have made this season.

Dorset head to Finchampstead having suffered just one defeat in the 50 overs competition this season – in a high-scoring contest against Cheshire in their final group match – and having beaten an in-form Buckinghamshire by 74 runs in their quarter-final.

They will face a Berkshire side who have suffered just one defeat in all cricket this season – in their T20 opener against Oxfordshire – and who are keen to make amends for a defeat by Cheshire in last season’s Trophy semi-final which cost them the chance to win the competition for a fifth consecutive season.

Berkshire have successfully introduced some fresh faces into their side this season but Dorset also have a youthful side of home-grown players supplemented by the addition of batter Dylan Church, who joined from Wiltshire over the winter, and left-arm seamer Joe Carson who is a student at Bournemouth University.

Church and Carson have added depth to Dorset’s squad and been consistent performers across the two white ball competitions along with opening batter Will Tripcony who will go into the semi-final having made two T20 half-centuries in the past fortnight.

“We know it’s going to be a very tough game having played Berkshire before in the competition so we know that they will be a very good outfit,” Lawrence said before today's match.

“We are very much looking for the competition but we have been playing some really good cricket this season so it bodes well for a really good, competitive match.

“We’ve picked up a few new players this year and they have added something different and a little bit more depth in all departments for us so we are really confident in the side we have got out.

“Out of the squad of 12 we only have two players who aren’t home grown and a fair number of them are quite young as well which bodes well for the future.

“We are really looking forward to Sunday. When you play against Berkshire you know it’s a real challenge and it’s a good test and you know exactly where you are as a squad.

“We know that we will have to be on our game. At the end of the day it will be who turns up on the day and who puts a performance in and both squads are capable of doing that.”

Dorset will be without Felix Organ, who helped them beat Buckinghamshire in the last round. The batter/off-spinner is required by Hampshire for County Championship duty this weekend but batter/wicketkeeper Joe Eckland, who is also on Hampshire’s staff, is available.

Eckland is the latest in a long line of Dorset players to graduate to the first-class ranks with Somerset and England slow left-armer Jack Leach, Hampshire batter Tom Prest for Hampshire, Gloucestershire seamer and the Currie brothers – Scott (Hampshire) and Brad (Sussex) – among the current crop.

Eckland elder brother Alex, who has been a heavy run-scorer for Dorset in recent seasons, has been trialling with Warwickshire recently and will return to duty with Dorset having played for the Challengers against Guernsey.

National Counties Trophy semi-finals

Sunday June 22 (11am)

Berkshire v Dorset at Finchampstead
Shropshire v Suffolk at Shifnal

 

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