Skipper James Ralph has conceded that Shropshire’s hopes of winning the Minor Counties Championship are over for another year after defeat against Oxfordshire at Whitchurch.

Ralph’s side were beaten by 117 runs yesterday after being bowled out for 214 when chasing 332 to win on a flat track in the western division clash at Heath Road.

And Ralph accepts they have far too much to do in their last two games – away to Wales and Devon – to stand a chance of catching runaway leaders Cheshire.

Shropshire fielded a side with an average age of just over 21 against Oxfordshire, and Ralph believes his young guns may need some more experience to guide them.

“I’d have thought we are out of it now,” he admitted.

“But we’ve still got two games left to play and we’ll be trying our hardest to win them.

“We’ve got four or five players coming back into the picture who were unavailable for this one and we’ll make a decision next week

“It’s all right having a young team, but you need a winning one, too.

“I’m sure we’ll get there with our young players – we just need some experienced players amongst them.”

Ralph was disappointed with the way his side collapsed yesterday, but insists the damage was done in the first innings – when they bowled superbly to dismiss the visitors for 180 but could then only make 182 themselves in reply.

“It’s a bit like the Cornwall game (which Shropshire also lost) in that it stems back to the first innings,” said Ralph.

“We should have got 100 runs in front of them and been chasing 200 or even less to win.

“We’re struggling to bat for time at the moment.

“We’ve not looked like batting for 90 overs in any of our three-day games and we used to look like we could bat for 120 overs if we wanted.”