CHERRY Tree skipper Andreas Sudnick is targeting a top ten finish after his side's early season charge came off the rails.

Tree were a side inspired after winning five of their first six games but a defeat to earby on june 4 started the slide and the club have been up and down ever since.

But Sudnick doesn't put it down to poor performances - just a lack of a strike bowler - and he believes if he can recruit well in the winter Cherry Tree can be back among the challengers.

He said: "At the start of the season, I think we started above expectations. We had a great little run but then we lost out to the likes of Earby, Settle and Great Harwood.

"But it wasn't as if we were playing badly, in most cases we were putting scores of 200-plus on the board but our opponents were getting them.

"When we played Earby, they hadn't won a game all season which is flattering to the rest of the league because they're a decent side.

"We also lost out to Edenfield in the quarter-finals of the Ramsbottom Cup and had we won we would have faced Oswaldtwistle in the semis and we would have fancied our chances of getting through to the final.

"That was our last chance of silverware this season but we need to look to the positives and try and get a top half finish and then we can re-build for next season."

But for this season, Sudnick is backing pro Zahoor Elahi to break the league batting record of Shahid Nawaz, 1608 runs, he set in 1999.

Sudnick added: "Zahoor has been fantastic for us. He scored almost 1200 runs last season and he's already scored over 1000 this season so with 10 games left he's got every chance.

"He failed against Clitheroe on Saturday but it shows we have the ability because we got close to Clitheroe's score without a big contribution from him.

"(Shahid) Nawaz and Naeem (Ashraf) were the difference between the sides on Saturday. If we can get a strike bowler over the winter and a middle order batsmen then we'll be a real force to be reckoned with next season.

"We recruited Darren Preston from Kearsley in the Bolton League and I'll be having a look at a few others to see if we can pick some other players up.

"The likes of Steven Hopwood will be given their chance to shine but we're being positive and I'm aiming for at least a top half finish."

This weekend, Cherry Tree face Whalley.