JACK Haines made sure that Goatacre suffered no hangover following the departure of Ed Kilbee, spanking 51 in just 18 balls to obliterate Warminster in WEPL Premier Two.

The Goats were playing their first match following the departure of opener Kilbee, who joined Birmingham League outfit Cannock on a £5-per-run deal last week, but Warminster were unable to take advantage as the hosts ran out comfortable eight-wicket winners.

After Giorgio Rigali had taken 3-18 in helping Goatacre bowl their opponents out for just 109, Haines stole the show.

He carted the visitors’ attack all around the small Goatacre Lane ground, smashing eight fours and three sixes in a blitzkrieg, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it knock.

His captain, Brad Dawson, was full of praise for Haines post-match. He said: “No need for Ed when we had Jack like that. He said to me at tea, as he does most weeks which annoys me, ‘I’m being serious today, I’m going to go out there and try to hit the first ball for six’.

“He hit it for four and then hit 18 off the over, then Liam took 10 off the next one and Jack smashed the next one everywhere.

“He was 42 off about 14 balls, which is ridiculous.

“He won us the game really. In a game we could easily have slipped up in or made it difficult for ourselves he went out there and made in 60-odd for nought off three or four overs.

“That takes the game away.

“If we lose a couple of wickets early on it gets a bit of pressure on, but if you’re going at 20 an over for the first three or four overs then there is no way you can really lose the game.

“It was a good day.

“We got one of their best players out third ball which was massive, and we chased it down pretty well.

“The pitch was alright, it wasn’t terrible, but we chased it down pretty easily which was good.”

Goatacre, up until four weeks ago locked in a relegation battle, are now just 29 points off a promotion spot with six matches remaining.

Dawson still holds out hope that he and his teammates can force a miracle outcome to a campaign that looked to be headed in one direction and one direction only until before late June.

“We were still in it three weeks ago and we’re probably still in it now because we’re only 20-odd points from the bottom two,” he said.

“After this Saturday we’ve played the top three teams in the league, so we’ve got all the teams around us and below us then.

“Even if we pick up half the wins we should be fine.

“We have got a massive chance. We’ve hammered Thornbury, we’ve hammered Warminster - Thornbury I think will start to struggle soon so you never know. If Taunton can lose to Weston and we beat Weston it brings us closer. If we can win four of our last six then anything could happen.”