A DODGY outfield at Beanacre & Melksham will provide a stiff test for Darren Beasant and his Wootton Bassett side this weekend.

Beanacre’s ground has been left in a rotten state after a mini rugby tournament held by Melksham Rugby Club, with whom they share facilities, and recent wet weather will not have helped conditions prior to this Wiltshire League Division One clash.

However, Beasant emphasised that both teams will have to deal with the muddy surface, saying: “It’s looks interesting. Obviously, whenever you share a ground you come up against these challenges from time to time. I wasn’t aware of it until last week so with another week of rain this week it’s going to be interesting conditions, which is always a leveller.

“Other than the post on Twitter they’ve not made known anyone formally aware of it. You can’t blame them. We share our outfield with various teams in the winter and, as hard as the groundsman works, they try to deal with the repercussions of that.

“I’ve got sympathy for them. It’s clearly going to be wet, it’s clearly going to be challenging but it’s the same for both sides so we’ve just got to go there and do what we can.”

Paul Huckin replaces the absent Lee Stevens for Bassett, who won their opening-day fixture against Swindon NALGO by three wickets. Beasant has urged his players not to rest on their laurels after that success.

He said: “It was nice to win last week with our backs to the wall and in a slightly different way other than the same old suspects bowl sides out or rack up runs. It’s given us lots of confidence - in other people and in ourselves.

“To win a close one is terrific but we’ve got to guard against complacency. We’ve managed to chase down 190 at home and you’d want to do that nine times out of 10. There are lots of areas to tighten up on.”