FARNHAM Royal skipper Ollie Clayson says his side must capitalise on their relegation reprieve next season.

Clayson lamented his side’s ‘pathetic’ batting display after a final-day 52-run defeat against Harefield on Saturday.

The result left Royals in the bottom two and should have relegated the Church Road club from the Home Counties League.

However, a league restructure has sparred Farnham from the drop, meaning they will play Division Two West cricket once again next year.

“We need to make it count as a club,” Clayson told the Observer. “We will get an overseas which will hopefully win us a few games, and be good for the youngsters.

“Javed Khan and Naveed Zaigham have now retired after 10 years at Farnham Royal, so we will need some young lads.

“I will be searching the depths of the Minor Counties League to find them.” Royals’ collapse against Harefield last weekend unfortunately sums up their season, in which they won just three league games all year.

Chamunorwa Chibhabha (49) and Poojan Vyas (43) got Harefield off to a flying start at 151-2, but spin king Muhammad Abid (4-49) slowed the run rate and restricted the visitors to 217-8 from their allotted 50 overs.

“We bowled quite well and were happy to chase 220-230 at the start of the day,” commented Clayson.

“Our fielding wasn’t particularly great, but there was no reason why we couldn’t chase it down.

“We’ve got three quality spinners so knew we would slow the run rate down, in terms of a unit the bowling was brilliant.” Khan (42) and George Thurstance (32) got Farnham off to a strong start in reply at 70-2, but wickets soon tumbled and the hosts slumped to 138-8.

Murtaza Ghulam added some late resistance by smashing 25 off just 28 balls, but Royals were eventually all out for 165.

“Things were looking good, but I saw four wickets fall at the other end while I was batting,” Clayson bemoaned.

“Getting out to soft shots has underlined our season really, everyone didn’t pull theirweight.

“Javed threw it away and George left a straight one and got cleaned up, it was pathetic really.” **PICK up a copy of the Observer, out now, for all the latest sports news and action** **FOLLOW the Observer on Twitter @Observer_sports**