AS you probably know by now, I will be leaving Worcestershire at the end of the season.

It was a difficult decision for me after eight enjoyable years at New Road but I feel the time is right for me to move on.

I will leave with some happy memories and lots of friends.

What I don’t want to do now is detract from the win at Essex on Sunday and today’s game against Nottinghamshire in LV County Championship Division One.

Daryl Mitchell’s knock at Colchester of 50 not out is one of the finest limited-overs innings I have seen.

The way he forced Essex to change the field so he could play his shots when he wanted was superb.

Mitch’s knock reminded me of how Neil Fairbrother used to marshal England home.

Ian Fisher supported Mitch well after Vikram Solanki and Steve Davies gave us our usual good start with the bat.

Young Jack Shantry made his debut for us down at Colchester and I thought he did very well.

Jack will get his chance again today against Nottinghamshire in the championship at New Road.

We probably gave Essex 10 to 15 runs too many in the field but Mitch got us home and if we can keep going like this in Pro40 Division One, who knows what can happen?

Although I’m not playing against Nottinghamshire, we must start picking up wins before it is mathematically too late for the County to stay up.

But we know how good a side our visitors are — they are full of internationals and challenging Durham for the title.

We are going to be playing an extra batsman like we did against Warwickshire when we last played at New Road three weeks ago.

Alexei Kervezee has come into the team for me on what will be another green, result wicket where spin is unlikely to feature much.

Alexei deserves his chance and it will give him some more experience of first-class cricket.

Unfortunately, at the moment, we could be looking at the lowest points total in Division One since the championship was split into two divisions.

That stands at 88.5. We have got 57 points going into today’s encounter and no-one at the club wants to be associated with this sort of record.

I firmly believe there is enough ability in our dressing room to make sure we surpass that points tally.

While it is mathematically possible, everyone will be doing all they can to try and stay up.

Despite me leaving at the end of the season, I will be giving everything to try and help us stay up in the championship and possibly regain the Pro40 title.