Tucker delighted as team chose Trowbridge over Wembley

With Swindon Town playing at Wembley, Tucker was preparing for his side to show a general reluctance to make the trip to west Wiltshire with such a significant local event taking place in London.

But the County Ground skipper is delighted by the commitment shown to cricket by his teammates which has left Swindon with a strong enough team to challenge their recently-relegated hosts.

“With the football on we have lost three guys, but it could have been many more than that,” he said.

“I was preparing to be told that most of them wanted to go, but in the end it’s only three and it is great to see that the boys are willing to come out and play.

“We are weakened slightly in that we’re not at completely full strength, but it’s not as bad as it could have been.”

Those three absentees are Jonathan Sore, John Baden and Will Nicols, with Stuart Archer, Matthew Baker and Paul Paginton coming into the side.

“Matthew and Paul have been scoring runs in the second team and deserve their chance, and hopefully they’ll give us a selection headache next week,” said Tucker.

“I’m sure they will fit into the team quickly without any problem.”

Tucker freely conceded he has little knowledge of Saturday’s opposition, having spent several seasons in the league below them.

But he expects Trowbridge to be serious contenders for immediate promotion back to Premier Two this year, and knows the task will not be an easy one tomorrow afternoon.

“Personally I’m not very familiar with Trowbridge, I went down there as a youngster but that was about it,” he said.

“I’m not too sure about their side and what they have got in their team so it is a bit of a step into the unknown Despite an up and down early season, the home side are starting to show signs of devastating quality, particularly in the victory over Stroud last time out.

Perveiz Aziz, the team’s overseas signing, decimated a decent attack, plundering 170 lightning quick runs in just 131 balls as Trowbridge eventually posted 291.

Then Alex Hart showed how ruthless he can be on a seaming wicket, snatching 5-28 in nine overs to help Trowbridge romp home by 105 runs.

However, should Swindon negate the impact of the duo they are well set for maintaining their 100 per cent start to the season.

“We have got going well so far and want to keep it up,” said Tucker.

“It’s going to be difficult this weekend but we’re hopeful.”

• Nationwide House captain Joe Perkins wants his team to continue their winning streak as they travel to Calne in Wilts One tomorrow, but do so without the need for good fortune.

Nationwide have recorded back-to-back successes against Purton and Devizes in the last two weeks, but with neither victory being managed in particularly assured fashion, Perkins is hoping for a more comprehensive display this Saturday.

“We’ve realised that those wins, although they’ve been satisfying, were games were we could have lost if a certain amount of the luck had not had been on our side,” said the skipper.

“The batsman have been tasked with fully concentrating on posting some bigger scores to take some pressure off the bowlers, and with this in mind Mick Harris is brought in from the twos after scoring a fine century last week.”

Whilst top order fragility may be the worry for Perkins, the bowling unit more or less continues to pick itself with strike partnership Adam Tooze and Steve Lewis having stated the season in impressive form.

And the pair are both available for selection this weekend, despite Nationwide suffering mass absenteeism due to Swindon Town Football Club’s Wembley day out.

“The bowling attack is again unchanged after another fine performance,” he said.

“The lethal threat of Adam and Steve was rewarded with taking crucial early wickets last week and we’ll hope for more again.

“Our spin bowler Andy Lewis will for a third week running be looking to stem the flow of runs in the latter overs.”