FRINTON Cricket Club’s Michael Griggs says hard graft in the nets and extra one-to-one coaching has helped rejuvenate his season.

The batsman made the worst start of his career with a dearth of runs in the opening weeks of the Gibbs Denley East Anglian Premier League campaign.

However, he sought help from batting coach Steve Wilmot and achieved a milestone in Saturday’s draw at Norwich – taking his tally of Frinton runs past the 1,000 mark.

Along the way this season he has scored 84, against Sawbridgeworth in the ECB National Club Championship, and a top league score of 78, against Swardeston.

“I had a shocking start to the season with a few ducks in the first few weeks,” former Mistley man Griggs told the Gazette.

“It was the leanest spell of my career and tough to deal with at times.

“It was hard not to be down about it and that’s when I decided to get some one-to-one help from Steve.

“He’s been brilliant and really helped, both technically and in terms of my mind-set.

“Others were also great, including my work, who let me take time off to get out in the nets, and my friends, who kept my spirits high, and I’ve also been happy to please my loyal Twitter followers!

“Everyone at the club was great, too.

“There are some big-name players at Frinton and some big guns like Mikey Comber, Mervyn Westfield and Kyran Young.

“They’re hard to keep up with but all my team-mates were supportive and kept telling me things would come good.”

Griggs, who works at Dovercourt DIY, was delighted to take his club tally of runs into four figures of Saturday. He scored 27 as Frinton batted first and made 277 at Norwich.

However, they were unable to bowl the hosts out and they held on for a draw.

“I’m really pleased and proud to have reached the milestone of 1,000 runs, although it’s taken longer than expected,” said the 32-year-old.

“I’m in my third season at Frinton but should have made the move earlier and had more time playing Premier League cricket.

“Now I realise I’m in the twilight of my career, certainly in terms of playing at this level, and there’s a chance this will be my last season.

“I’m going to see how I finish.

“If things go well, I might be tempted to have another year but if not I’ll call it a day.”

Frinton will hope to get back on the victory trail when they welcome Cambridge Granta to Ashlyns Road on Saturday (11am start).

Griggs admits last week’s draw was tough to take but believes his side – fifth in the table - still have an outside chance of securing the title.

“Saturday was frustrating,” he said.

“Norwich were never in the game, in terms of winning, but we just couldn’t get the wickets we needed.

“Norwich, like all the teams at this level, have some good players and they manipulated the strike to frustrate us.

“Now we’re looking forward to a big game this weekend.

“Granta are just above us but we always back ourselves to win.

“We still believe we can win the title.

“There’s no reason why we can’t, although obviously we’re relying on other teams to drop points.

“With the players we’ve got, we should be right in the mix and hopefully we can finish as high as possible.”

Skipper Young was unavailable for last week’s game but should return on Saturday.