THE recent weeks have passed by quickly with a sporadic fixture list and we are now approaching what I like to call the business end of the season.

All the hard work we have done leading up to our run in will count for nothing if we don’t finish strongly.

With seven weeks of the season left we have six championship fixtures to squeeze in and an awful lot of travelling between games.

Last week’s game against Leicestershire in Swansea was a missed opportunity to get a good win and 20 points under our belt.

The pitch did offer some assistance to the spinners but unfortunately not enough for us to bowl Leicester out on the final day. Leicester played very negatively and didn’t even try to force a result and win the game.

Their negative batting approach helped them negate our spinners where our batsman played positively and in the end that cost them their wickets.

Again James Harris bowled superbly well and I become more and more impressed with him every game we play together. I was also pleased to hear that James got awarded his county cap last Sunday which is thoroughly deserved.

It was also good to see the lads winning their 40 over fixture on Sunday in Swansea.

We have come close to winning a few one day games this year but not managed to get over the line. After the disappointment of missing out on the T20 quarter finals it’s important we try and finish as high up the table as possible in the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition.

It’s going to be a tough ask on James to play the remaining six games. He has bowled a lot this summer and we forget he is only 20 years old. I`m sure he would like to and if he can it will give us a huge boost to gaining promotion to Division One.

It may mean some squad rotation and I feel we have all the bases covered in the bowling department.

We have swing and accuracy from Huw Waters, pace and bounce from Will Owen and if it turns probably the best spin trio in the country. If we are going to push for promotion then we will all need to play some part in the next six games.

This week’s fixture has taken us to Cheltenham to face Gloucestershire where the pitch has been notoriously good for batting in the past. However in recent times it has been a bowler friendly surface.

I don’t think teams will prepare dry pitches for us for the rest of the season due to our potent spin attack. Robert Croft and Dean Cosker have had good success in the past so I am expecting a seamer friendly pitch to try and negate our spin threat.

It will also be my birthday while we are at Cheltenham. I am 29 years young today with my family coming up to share a meal and a drink or two tonight.

It only seems like last week when I made my debut in Derby in 1999 as a young 17 year old boy with long blonde hair! It just gives you a little reminder of how lucky you to be playing a sport you love for a living.

Also this week saw Tom Maynard and myself take part in the Brain Vs Brawn challenge that is run by Sky Sports on Saturday mornings.

Tom basically holds out a 5Kg dumbbell for as long as possible and I answer as many questions as I can in that period. We managed to get six questions right but I`m not looking forward to seeing the questions I got wrong on the television next weekend! The brain freezes when the pressure is on and you have three cameras in your face.

Also in the last fortnight I proposed to my lovely girlfriend Maxine and surprisingly enough she said yes! We are all gearing up for a wedding over the Christmas period and hopefully a double celebration with Glamorgan promoted as well.