THOUGH I believe Spitfires are still a long way off the mark in terms of the one-day game we did play some decent limited overs cricket in our two totesport League games last week.

Though naturally encouraged by the win in Leeds what was equally pleasing to me was the character shown by our lads.

Seam bowlers on both sides were equally excited about having to bowl first on the St Lawrence pitch for the floodlit game against Warwickshire and sadly for us it was Bears who won the toss.

The toss, the weather and the fact the pitch had been covered for a couple of days clearly had an effect on the result and we found ourselves in big trouble at 29 for five.

At one point I feared the hired floodlights might not even be required but our lower order showed pleasing determination and, with Justin Kemp’s classy 83, we were able to post a fighting 179.

Our hopes of winning were dealt a big blow when a hamstring injury prevented Kemp from bowling and forced skipper Matt Walker to use both spinners when seam would have been more effective.

To make matters worse the ball got extremely wet, but I am sure had Kemp been able to bowl we would have won this game rather than losing narrowly.

Stepping up to first team level is always testing, especially if it happens to be in front of the Sky Sports cameras and a big crowd, so credit to Robbie Joseph for enjoying the moment and confirming that he will be one for the future.

Our second fixture of the week led to the long coach journey to Headingley where Yorkshire found themselves in a rare and position of having England players Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard.

Even though Vaughan scored an excellent century our lads put in an energetic performance in the field.

We managed to reach our target in the last over with Walker again showing what a good player he is with a busy half-century.

I was delighted by young Joe Denly’s performance against a testing new ball.

Tredwell was another to impress and can look to building on this performance. He has worked hard and gone about his business without fuss and is starting to look comfortable at first team level.