BIDDESTONE CRICKET: SOUTH African all-rounder Dwaine Perry believes surrendering the captaincy has given him a new lease of life at Biddestone.

Perry has been replaced by Kris Boulton as captain this summer and he believes the switch has paid immediate dividends.

Perry hit an unbeaten 69 and took four wickets on Saturday as Biddestone opened their Gloucester and Wilts Division Two campaign with a four-wicket win at home to Malmesbury.

It was his fourth consecutive half century already this summer and he insists his form is down to him being "more relaxed."

He said: "I decided that captaining the side was too much for me really. I enjoyed last season, but I did not enjoy the captaincy.

"I found that I had too many concerns other than my own form and I think it affected the way I played.

"This summer I can worry about myself and I think that has shown in my game in the matches so far this summer."

Biddestone narrowly missed out on promotion in their first year out of the Wiltshire League last season and Perry is confident they can go one better this time round.

He said: "We could not quite finish the hard work off last year, but this season we are all confident and hopefully we will go all the way and get promotion this time."

Following their third place finish last year, Biddestone were keen to get into action after their wash out at Woodmancote last week.

Visitors Malmesbury won the toss and elected to bat first but struggled against lively Biddestone bowling. Only James Pearce-Smith (66 not out) and Charlie Langton (37) offered any real resistance, adding 59 for the sixth wicket.

Perry finished with figures of 4-14, while Michael Lodder took 2-39, as Malmesbury finished their 45 overs on 155-9.

In reply, openers Doug Miller and Matt Lennon departed early and it was left to Perry to steady the ship with an unbeaten 69. Wickets continued to fall around him and the game looked evenly balanced at 96-6 until veteran Gordon Bedwell added an unbeaten 22 as the home side reached their target with nine overs and four wickets to spare.

Captain Kris Boulton said: "We bowled and fielded well although our batting looked a bit edgy as a lot of us have not played much this season.

"Fortunately though we had Dwaine and he is in really good form at the moment. I had a chat with him in the winter and we decided we would try and take the pressure off him a bit.

"Last season he was bowling his full allocation of overs, was batting number three and was captaining the side and this put a heavy burden on him."

Biddestone travel to Hinton Charterhouse tomorrow.