WILTSHIRE head coach Tom Morton is hoping his side can hit the ground running this weekend after seeing their pre-season campaign hampered by the weather.

The county begin their competitive programme with a 50-over Unicorns Knockout Trophy clash against Wales at Warminster on Sunday (from 11.30am)

Morton, who was named as the new supremo after the departure of team boss Neil Shardlow at the end of last season, has had three stalled attempts to get the season underway after seeing friendly fixtures with Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Dorset all called off due to the weather.

Wiltshire enjoyed an eight-wicket weather-reduced win over West of England League Frocester last weekend to finally get some game time and Morton said of the Wales fixture: "“We are feeling fairly confident and we are looking forward to it. The game has been moved from Swindon (due to pitch conditions), so it’s exciting.

“It’s a shame because we haven’t played a game there (Swindon) in a few years, so we were looking forward to that, but it’s been moved to Warminster, which holds up well in wet conditions.

“The weather has impeded our practice and our season so far. We had our first three games called off so it has been a slow start but everyone is in the same position.

“We have played Wales a lot over the last few years and they are always quite a young side. They have some talented cricketers.

“The wicket will be fairly bowler-friendly and the ground at Warminster tends to be high-scoring as well.”

Morton has sets his sights on a more positive year than 2017 and added: “I’ve been around Wiltshire cricket for 13 years now, so I am fairly comfortable with it.

“It’s a new role, which is challenging. It is kind of linked in with the second team so it’s been good to work with the younger lads, who are on the fringes of the county side.

“That has been mainly what I’ve been doing so far because the first team haven’t been playing.

“I’ve been working with guys who I haven’t worked with before. I play for South Wilts so I don’t really cross paths with a lot of the guys who are around the team.

“The format is slightly different this year so the one-day format is now a knockout competition and we have a twenty-twenty competition too now so we are hoping we can do well with both of those.”

Devizes' Tom Grant took three wickets and Potterne's Jake Roberts and Burbage & Easton Royal's Tom Wallbridge two each as Frocester were reduced to 116-8, Grant also hitting 64 not out to guide Wiltshire to their target with nearly 20 overs to spare.

Wiltshire squad v Wales: Ed Young (Potterne, captain), Tahir Afridi (Henley), Neil Clark (Potterne), Brad Dawson (Goatacre), Jake Goodwin (Potterne), Joe King (Corsham), Jake Lintott (Clevedon), Ashur Morrison (Potterne), Tom Morton (South Wilts, wicketkeeper), Ryan Murray (South Wilts), Uzi Qureshi (Frocester), Jake Roberts (Potterne).