TOM Lambert, the Berkshire performance manager and head coach, must be pleased he has a squad with a great deal of depth.

For he is having to dig deep into his resources to select a side for the Unicorns Championship match against Wiltshire at Corsham starting on Sunday (11am) as there is a lengthy list of players unable to play.

In-form batsman Richard Morris and paceman Tom Nugent have work commitments, Henley team-mate Euan Woods is on duty with Hampshire's 2nds, while Jack Davies and Ethan Bamber are in England's squad for the Under-19 Test against South Africa at Scarborough.

With professional counties having the first choice of their contracted players for second-team games, it looks as if Callum Gregory, Brandon Gilmour, Archie Carter, Joe Cracknell and Tom Scriven will all be unavailable to Berkshire.

Yet Lambert sees that as a positive for Berkshire cricket as a whole, explaining: "We are proud of our young players and happy they are representing first-class counties. Hopefully, the end result will be professional contracts for them; that's the most important thing."

Lambert is confident he will still be able to field a strong side and one capable of extending Berkshire's impressive unbeaten run in the Western Division since August 2014.

  • BERKSHIRE women suffered a brace of defeats in their County Championship Twenty20 Division Two games with Cricket Scotland and Cheshire at Chester Boughton Hall.

In their first game against Scotland, Berkshire chose to bat but lost both openers – Sherisa Gumbs and Annabel Flack (15) – to run outs.

Carla Rudd top scored with 23, and with skipper Alice Macleod and the unbeaten Emily Cunningham both making 15, Berkshire reached 110-7.

Phoebe Graham took an early wicket before Cheshire progressed to 38, Rachel Hardy then having Rachel Scholes caught by Gumbs.

Any hopes Berkshire had of victory were snuffed out by fine knocks from captain Kathryn Bryce (32 from 26 balls) and Katie McGill (40no from 44), and Cheshire reached their target with 10 balls to spare.

In the late-afternoon game, Berkshire lost by 21 runs to Cheshire.

Hardy (2-12 from four overs) was the stand-out performer with the ball, but Berkshire allowed their opponents to recover from 20-5 to 122-7.

The reply never got going after Berkshire slipped to 24-4, and despite Ashleigh Muttitt's brave 32 not out from 26 balls, they could only score 101-9.