OUR second County Championship Division Two match of the season against Worcestershire started yesterday (Wednesday) so it was on to the golf course for me after training on Tuesday to relax ahead of the game.

Players have all sorts of different hobbies and interests. It’s a long season, so it’s good to take your mind off cricket from time to time because things do get intense.

We had a good win against Loughborough University last week and, while it wasn’t the most important game, it was good to get out in the middle and get some overs into legs.

I feel as if I am bowling and batting well at the moment and it’s just a question of putting a big score together now.

Worcestershire are struggling a bit and they won’t be happy with the way things have started for them.

We know all about that because we haven’t really started the County Championship well in the last three or four years.

But our aim this year is to get promoted. We haven’t got to go up as champions, but just be in those promotion spots We’ve got a young squad who won two limited-over competitions last year and it’s really good that we’re growing up together and playing together from a young age.

We’re playing because we’re good enough, not just because we’re young, but there is a long way to go in the season and we’re only in the third week.

A real bonus this summer would be to actually get a good, consistent run of cricket because we were very disappointed with how last summer turned out.

It must have been one of the wettest seasons on record, but hopefully the majority of this one will be dry.

It’s hard work when the rain disrupts things, especially for the smaller town and village clubs who don’t have the same sort of manpower available to them that the counties do.