IT was another disappointing end to our LV= County Championship Division One match with Sussex but, if we can keep getting ourselves into good positions, we should be OK.

For three days at Hove we were probably on top and, going into the last day, only chasing 200 was a target we thought was in our grasp.

Perhaps we should have chased it down really and we’ve got to shoulder that responsibility.

Sussex bowled particularly well at times, but you’re going to get that in Division One and you have got to be able to handle it.

Similarly, against Yorkshire, we were probably on top as well a couple of times during the match.

We’ve got to look at a way of chasing these targets down and work out a way of weathering tough periods against good bowling.

If we can do that, then we’ll be there or thereabouts.

On the first morning at Sussex, we were up against it a bit – Matt Machan played a magnificent knock to get a quick-fire hundred but, other than that, we controlled the game reasonably well.

We got a first-innings lead, which was a great effort, and there were a couple of chances to really put Sussex under pressure with the ball.

Even on the third night, to get to stumps at 47-0 chasing 247 was really pleasing and put us in the box seat.

Unfortunately, on the last day there were a couple of dubious lbw decisions and all of a sudden we went from 57-0 to 69-4, with a couple of bad wickets in there.

That switched the momentum of the game. They were on a high and we were on a bit of a downer but, even from that point, I felt we should have dug in a little bit better, weathered the storm and still been able to get to that target. There were some good performances, with Alexei Kervezee scoring 93 and taking three wickets.

Alexei works incredibly hard on his bowling in the nets. His batting and bowling both benefitted from the 10 days in India over the winter.

I wanted to give him a go at some point. I felt the time was right and he repaid me 10-fold.

I wasn’t expecting him to get wickets of the calibre of first-innings century-maker Ed Joyce and Luke Wright – they were pretty good scalps to start with!

We have had a few days off since the Sussex match and held our 150th anniversary golf day at Sapey.

This week there’s an opportunity for a bit of Twenty20 practice, with that competition looming on the horizon.

Come Thursday, we will be gearing up towards the championship game against Somerset on Sunday.