THERE will be some keenly contested local derbies in Division Two this season with Swindon, Wootton Bassett and Marlborough all battling it out for promotion.

Swindon skipper John Basden felt a mixture of bad luck and sub-standard performances were to blame for their relegation from Division One.

Now he has called on his players to pick themselves up and bounce back at the first attempt. "I felt we were unlucky to go down but at end of day we weren't good enough in the first half of the season in both the bowling and fielding departments,'' he said.

"We struggled with Willie Nichols last year. He hit a 100 early on but then missed eight or nine games. We also lacked a leading bowler. There was generally good weather at the start of last season and struggled to get the important early wickets in matches.''

Following the disappointment of relegation Basden hopes his players can use it as motivation to do well this time round. "We went down but we believe in ourselves. Now we need to go out and demonstrate our ability and turn our potential into performances.

"A few people didn,t perform last year and owe us a good season. In the second half of last year we were playing better and hopefully we can continue that into the new season.''

Swindon are hoping Matt Baker will weigh in with a big share of runs this season and they are looking for good things from Roger Willoughby who has been to Australia for the winter to gain more experience.

Swindon start the new season with an away trip to Hinton Charterhouse.

Also relegated from Division One last season were Wootton Bassett. Skipper Clive Chattell is also expecting a positive response from his players this time round.

"Going down last season was hugely disappointing but we had lost some top batsmen at start of the season,'' said Chattell. Now we have got two of them back. Juggy Chahal is returning after taking a year out and Tony Sharma is likewise. Both of them are opening batsmen and it is a big boost for us to have them back.''

Bassett have also signed Australian Michael Walker as their overseas player. Chattell added: "We do have a lot to be positive about and we are hopefully aiming to get straight back up at the first attempt. We know it won't be easy though because we came down with Swindon and Hatherley and Reddings.''

Chattell is hoping left-arm medium bowler Ian Lancaster right-arm bowler will pick up wickets, while experienced bowler Andy Stevens will look to follow up his 20-wicket haul from last season. "Hopefully we have a successful season ahead of us," said Chattell.

Marlborough will be looking to improve on the club's best season last year. They finished fourth in Division Two and believe promotion is realistic goal this time around.

New skipper Navid Ahmad has been encouraged by the return of a number of players , which he feels shows the club's intent for improvement.

Ex-Wiltshire minor county player Richard Turnell returns after his travels in Australia. Two former-first team captains in Hendy Alleyne and Magnus Painter return to add strength to the batting. The overseas player will be youngster Vinay Sharma.

Ahmad said: "With the talent at my disposal this season I see no reason why the club should not be promoted. Bad weather and two disappointing results prevented us going up last time.''

A top half finish is the aim for Malmesbury but club chairman John Williams is not ruling out the chance of promotion. The side finished in the bottom half of Division Two last season and are looking for an improvement this time around.

Top order batsmen Richard Gaunt and Jeremy Newman are still with the club and will be looking to get plenty of runs on the board this summer.

All-rounder Robin Eddington has joined after playing cricket in the Bristol area last season. But the club have suffered a blow with the arrival of Indian BK Majumder being delayed because of visa issues.

Williams said: "We are beginning to attract more players now and we are looking for an improvement on last season. A top half of the table position would be excellent but if we could sneak promotion it would be even better because we would then start to attract more new players.

"The delay over Majumder is frustrating. On top of being a very good batter he picked up 40 wickets last year despite carrying an injury."

Richard Mosdell is captaining the firsts for the fourth year and will be supported by new vice-captain James Pearce-Smith. On Saturday Malmesbury openwith a trip to Marlborough.