GOATACRE skipper Craig Gibbens is refusing to get distracted by the prospect of an appearance at Lord’s after his side demolished Wraysbury by 130 runs in their National Village Cup quarter-final.

Only Reed of Hertfordshire now stand between Goatacre and a return to the home of cricket in a competition they won in both 1988 and 1990, after Kevin Iles, who scored a century in the second of those finals 22 years ago, set up the victory with five wickets.

Goatacre’s innings of 309-5 was built around a stunning knock of 126 from opener Ed Wilkins, but despite his side’s all-round dominance, Gibbens is not getting carried away.

“To play at Lord's would be amazing, of course it would, but that is not something we can really think about because it has to be one game at a time for us,” he said.

“We put in a superb performance to get to the semi-final but there is still more to do, and at this stage we need to concentrate because it is a massive game.

“But if we play cricket as well as I know we can, then I am sure we will win the game.”

Goatacre went into the game full of confidence having beaten Weston-super-Mare in Premier Two the previous day, and Gibbens believes their momentum was crucial to the cup success.

“We were feeling confident going into the game, and that got even better because we then won the toss which is something I don’t normally manage to do,” he said.

“But we started well and Ed Wilkins was absolutely top draw, and then Luke Edwards batted well too.

“After the good start I told the players that if we went at five an over we would get a good score, but they completely ignored me and went at 10 an over, which was just superb.

“But we had chased down a big score the previous day and we knew it could be done, so that was a good wake-up call for us I think because it put things in perspective.

“We just kept taking wickets and there were some really good catches which helped us make it look very comfortable.”

The previous day Goatacre had allowed Weston to score 314 from their overs, and when Ed Kilbee went for a duck, things were looking ominous.

But Jonathan Wilkins smashed 116 in double-quick time, hitting 10 sixes on the way, and dragged his side over the line thanks to 23 runs off the last over.

“We had no right to win this game really, and to eventually come through it was such a high,” Gibbens said.

“We lost Ed Kilbee third ball which we were not expecting, but in a way I think it sort of tricked the opposition and made them think they had done the job.

“Jif (Wilkins) did an amazing job to keep on strike, and with three overs to go I went down the wicket to tell him we could do it, then he hit 23 of the last over which was just amazing.”