Studley skipper Richard Gregory insisted he was not alarmed by his side's dramatic collapse to 89ao in their final game at Fordhouses and laid the blame on the pitch.

Chasing 110, Studley's innings was littered with five ducks as only three players reached double figures.

But Gregory was sanguine about the anti-climactic end to a promising campaign.

"Fordhouses moved grounds at the end of last season and we'd been warned about the state of their pitch," explained Gregory.

"The pitch was just awful. When we arrived, the umpire declared it unplayable. They had left the covers off when it rained on Thursday night and then put them on on Friday, which wasn't ideal.

"The umpire wanted us to hang around until it dried out but we decided to give it a go. That was my first mistake!

"Then we lost the toss, which was my second! The only way they reached 110 was by slogging it. It wasn't pretty cricket.

"The pitch got worse and worse as we batted so it was just survival for us. It was the last game of the season so perhaps we didn't take it too seriously. We wanted to win but I would put the blame down to the wicket."

Bowler Mark Lewis passed the 50-wicket mark for the season, following up his four wickets in five balls heroics the previous week with a nap hand for 35 on Saturday. Stuart Harris accounted for the rest of the Fordhouses batsmen, conceding just 49.

Gary Roberts' return from a knee ligament injury proved short-lived as he was bowled for ten.

And Gregory knows the area to focus on in the winter nets.

"You can sum up our season by saying 'not enough runs'," he said.

"We've got the bowlers to bowl out any team in this league and the fielders to restrict the runs.

"But we need the batsmen to get up to 200-250 rather than 110-120 every week.

"We can be positive though with players like the twins Jawad and Omad Nazir having an impressive first season."