GOATACRE skipper Brad Dawson was pleased to put in a captain’s performance with both bat and ball to help his side secure a tight eight-run victory over plucky Glastonbury.

Having struggled for runs for much of the Premier Two campaign, Dawson let loose to score 110 from only 116 balls as his side scored 275 before taking three wickets as the visitors were bowled out for 267.

Despite being happy with his bowling this season Dawson has expected more from himself with the bat, but was pleased to contribute and was also quick to praise bowler Giorgio Rigali’s contribution at the crease in recent weeks.

“It was nice to get some runs for a change, because although I’ve got a few wickets this year and bowled really well I’ve struggled a bit with the bat,” he said.

“Before Saturday I think my highest score was 32, and although I’m not an unbelievable player I know I’m better than that.

“We all were a bit below-par for the first half of the season but in the second we’ve shown what we can do and that’s pleasing.

“I came in at 32-2 and me and Ed (Wilkins) took it to over a hundred before we lost two quick wickets.

“We then batted with Giorgio (Rigali) who has been very good considering he was an opening bowler, who we thought was only an opening bowler, and he’s not scored less than 40 for a number of weeks.

“I started off with a couple of boundaries before it dried up a little, but the good thing about Goatacre is I know you can bat and bat on it and as soon as you’re in you can play your shots and the boundaries will come.

“Any total over 250 is tough to chase and we felt as if we had set a decent total.”

Dawson was surprised at how close his side were pushed by the visitors and at one stage thought they were nailed on for the victory before some late wickets fell.

“You have to give Glastonbury a lot of credit because they gave it a real good go, and with 15 overs to go they were cruising it really and needing 58 from 10 overs on our ground with three or four wickets should be game over,” he said.

“It got a lot closer than what we expected and their six, seven and eight all scored good runs and put us in a bit of trouble.

“Fortunately we took some wickets at important times and we were able to take the win.”

Goatacre’s one remaining game is against relegation-threatened Gloucester and Dawson has his eye firmly fixed on a third-place finish for his side.

“We’ve got Gloucester last up and they’re fighting to stay up, and that will be an important game because we want to finish as high as we can for sure,” he said.

“We are two points behind Thornbury in third and if we can get ahead of them that will mean our second third-place finish in a row in Premier Two, which will be a massive achievement for the club.”