SWINDON v GOATACRE: Gibbens lets himself talk about promotion (From Swindon Advertiser)

SWINDON v GOATACRE: Gibbens lets himself talk about promotion

7:00am Friday 26th August 2011 in Cricket By Sam Morshead

IT’S taken 16 weeks, but finally Craig Gibbens has let the P-word slip.

The Goatacre captain has been happily ducking and diving to avoid questions on the topic of promotion out of the WEPL Glos/Wilts Division for the past three months, but at last he’s given in.

Only a ‘catastrophic whimper’, as Gibbens describes it, can prevent Goatacre from achieving successive league wins.

And the celebrations could well get under way tomorrow evening, with the village club needing just two points from their clash with Swindon to officially confirm their elevation to Premier 2.

Gibbens, basking in the glory of his side’s phenomenal season, yesterday conceded even he has begun to take part in the promotion party.

“We’ve been trying not to talk about it for so long but I think it’s safe now,” he said.

“We don’t want to go out with a whimper, but only a catastrophic whimper would mean we didn’t get the two points we need.

“After the Cheltenham game a few weeks ago some of the lads were signing champions songs and I told them to stop.

“Then it happened the next few weeks and it was all a bit early, but now we pretty much can.

“I’m really looking forward to Saturday and seeing how it all goes.”

After relying heavily on Ed Kilbee and Liam Dawson, pictured, in the term’s initial exchanges, Goatacre have found contributions coming from all angles of late.

And Gibbens was quick to point out how much of a team effort this year has been.

“It’s not just been Ed and Liam. We’ve done it as a team, without paying money and with runs and wickets from lots of people,” he said.

“It’s been a great season and hopefully we can keep it going through until the end.

“Saturday will be a tough game, Swindon will be up.

“So we’ll play the game in the right way and hopefully get the result.”