WITH seven games left in LV= County Cham-pionship Division One we have to treat them all as cup finals.

We set our targets at the start of the year of what we needed to stay up and I think three more wins should help us achieve that goal.

The first of these seven games starts today (11am) against Somerset and this is going to be an extremely tough match as they come to us on the back of a good win over Durham.

But we need to make sure that we start well, whether that be with bat or the ball.

A couple of results went our way last week with Yorkshire losing and Hampshire being deducted eight points for a poor pitch following their draw with Nottinghamshire.

However, we cannot concern ourselves with what other teams are doing. If we reach our points target then that really should be enough for us to stay up.

We can only control what we do, what happens elsewhere, happens.

Jack Manuel will make his Championship debut and he has been in fantastic form.

He comes in for James Cameron who, despite being in tremendous nick in the one-day game, hasn’t got the runs he would have liked in the four-day stuff.

Jack has been getting his runs, like Neil Pinner was when he forced his way into the team, so it is up to the likes of Pinns and Jimbo to go back to the seconds and score big to fight their way back into the team.

Sunday’s defeat against Sussex was a big disappointment.

Although I felt we were probably slighty above par with the bat — the pitch was very difficult to score on — I thought 200 was a good score. But Ed Joyce had other ideas.

We didn’t bowl well, we hit the wrong areas, offered too many half-volleys and long-hops and they were put away.

We have been pretty poor in the Clydesdale Bank 40 this season and are working hard to put it right.

Unfortunately, our trip to Holland at the start of last week was a complete wash-out. It rained virtually the whole time we were there and had no chance of playing. We flew back on the Monday as well so we didn’t get to do much while we were over there.

It was great news that Gareth Andrew has signed a new deal with the club and I think with the speed that he signed the contract shows how we are progressing as a club.

Gaz is having a great season. He was our stand-out performer in the Friends Life t20 and in the Championship he has got wickets and scored runs.

So to have him here for at least two more years, hopefully longer, is very positive for the club.