AT LAST, the guys are being rewarded for all their hard work throughout the winter months and pre-season with some decent results on the pitch.

I've said before that you need a little bit of good fortune to go with your hard work, but I feel that mother cricket is smiling on us and our results are improving.

We certainly didn't expect to bowl out Sussex twice inside a day, but we got lucky with some nice overcast conditions that helped our seamers and freshened up the grass a little.

That said, you've still got to create your chances and catch well and we did that superbly.

It obviously helped our cause that we scored two brilliant centuries on the opening day. Matthew Walker weathered the storm through the tough periods and went on to make a big impact with Yasir Arafat.

Now Andrew Hall is here too we have a couple of overseas professionals who are prepared to fight tooth and nail for the cause. We're very fortunate to have the two guys we do.

We're developing a nice self-belief within the team. When we do get to fire on all cylinders I believe we could play some very fine cricket indeed.