Foster plea in hunt for Shropshire cricket title

Expectant Ed Foster has urged Shropshire’s cricketers to keep their own house in order as they chase an historic Minor Counties Championship title.

Shropshire must beat Devon in the final three-day game of the season, which gets underway at Whitchurch tomorrow, and hope results elsewhere go their way to lift the Western Division title.

Shropshire, who have won the championship only once before in 1973 when the competition operated under a different format, would miss out if Wiltshire notch a home victory over Oxfordshire or Cornwall defeat Wales and pick up four bonus points.

But captain Foster admits defeating Devon should be his side’s only priority.

“Our first port of call has to be to win our game,” said Foster. “We need results to help us in other games but the last thing we want is to not win our game and then find out a victory would have been enough.

“It will be impossible not to know what’s going on elsewhere but our concentration has to be on trying to beat Devon.”

As well as claiming the 16 points for victory, Shropshire are likely to require a healthy haul of bonus points to have a chance of landing the title. Scoring 325 runs and taking nine Devon wickets in the maximum first-innings allocation of 90 overs per side would bring the full eight bonus points.

But Foster knows it will be no easy task.

“They have been one of the strongest sides over the last 10 years,” he added.

Foster, cricket co-ordinator Terry O’Connor and chairman of selectors Brian Foxall must make a late call on who to omit after naming a squad of 12.

Shrewsbury 16-year-old Ed Barnard is waiting to hear if he gets the nod to make his Shropshire debut.

The winner of the Western Division title will face the Eastern Division champions in a four-day overall final starting on September 9.

The action at Whitchurch starts at 11am on all three days, with admission free.