Cricket: Biddestone captain Kris Boulton shrugged off his team’s first loss of the season on Saturday as a blip and says it will not hinder their promotion hopes.

Boulton’s boys slumped to a surprise eight wicket defeat to Gloucester City Winget, which knocked them off top spot and down to fourth in the Glos/Wilts Division.

But the skipper remains adamant his team have what it takes to earn promotion this term, and is determined not to let the loss ruin their bright start to the season.

Boulton said: “I’m very disappointed, we just didn’t click.

“We probably scored 30 less runs than I wanted and our bowling wasn’t up to the mark. But everybody has lost a game now so we’ll just take that as our bad week.

“One defeat is not going to be the end of it for us. Chippenham lost two or three games last season and still went up so we’re not overly concerned.

“I still think we’ll bounce back and be there, of thereabouts, at the end of the season.”

Biddestone won the toss and batted first, but they were restricted to 192 for seven off their 50 overs.

Opener Martin Sawyer top scored with 57, while number four batsman Andrew Hulbert made 53.

Gloucester City bowler Tom Morris claimed his team’s best figures with 4-64.

In reply, Gloucester City reached 194 for the loss of just two wickets as they eased to their required winning total in 41.5 overs. Opener Scott Montgomery made 38, while Richard Howell and Will Steadman remained not out with 64 and 32 respectively.

Biddestone’s Mark Unwin took 1-19 and James Mitchell claimed 1-30.

Boulton, who hit five not out at the end of Biddestone’s innings, paid tribute to Gloucester City’s top order and is backing his team to get back on track against Lechlade on Saturday.

“With credit to Gloucester City, a couple of their guys batted very well,” he said.

“They were very positive and were probably the best first four batsmen we’ve seen this season. But we’ll have a good, hard training session this week.

“It will be our first visit there so we don’t know what to expect, but we’ll be looking for a good performance.”