HELENSBURGH Cricket Club’s captain says injuries and the unavailability of some key players are no excuse for his team’s slow start to the campaign.

One league win and one cup win are all Helensburgh have to show for their efforts after a tough first half of the campaign, but looking ahead to the first of the team’s ‘return’ league fixtures, at home to St Michael’s this weekend, Gregor Chambers insisted this week that his players have what it takes to turn their fortunes around.

Chambers told the Advertiser: “We simply haven’t put enough runs on the board.

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“Bowling and fielding-wise we’ve been as good as anyone, but if we don’t put a score up there’s little the bowlers can do.

“However, I don’t believe for a minute that we haven’t got the ability within the squad to turn this around during the second half of the season.

“The league is wide open with no-one dominating and on our day we are capable of beating anyone.”

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Those batting shortcomings were evident once again in Helensburgh’s latest league fixture, in which they were beaten by seven wickets away to Irvine on Saturday.

Helensburgh were all out for just 62 from only 35 overs, Ian Chambers top-scoring on 27 not out; Irvine reached their target in just 13.1 overs for the loss of three wickets, with Fred Parffrey taking two for 20 off seven overs.

Helensburgh continue their WDCU Division One campaign against St Michael’s this Saturday, July 6, and then have a Gay-Nicholls Challenge Cup quarter-final at home to Stenhousemuir on Sunday after Buckie CC, their opponents in the previous round, withdrew from the competition.

Meanwhile, the juniors are going great guns with som excellent performances from the club’s under-14s, led by Caelen Lang.

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Lang, Conor, Helen and Emma Niblock, Ciaran Hoskins, Campbell Overend, Tome Everest, and Alice and Ewan McCartney, have all made the transition to senior cricket this year, with Caelen, Emma and Helen also playing for the Western Warriors.

As previously reported, the All Stars is also going well with more than 22 youngsters having attended and this week they got a surprise visit from Twinkle, the All Stars mascot.