BASINGSTOKE cricketer Dean Nurse has had a year-long ban reduced by two months after being cleared of attacking an opponent during a match in August.

Nurse had initially been found guilty of a level four breach of discipline involving the assault of an opposition player during Basingstoke and North Hants’ Home Counties division two west trip to Aston Rowant.

The incident saw Nurse on the receiving end of a beamer bowled by Aston Rowant’s Wesley Morrick.

After taking evasive action, Nurse confronted the bowler, who responded by grabbing Nurse and wrestling him to the floor.

No punches were thrown but the pair had to separated by their team mates.

Both players were handed year-long bans ending on October 1, effectively ruling them out for the whole of the 2010 season, with a further one-year ban suspended until 2011.

During an appeal held last month, Basingtoke and North Hants asked for Nurse’s offence to be reduced to level three, accepting that he seriously provoked Morrick but denying that he was responsible for the attack.

The appeal panel accepted this and reduced his ban by two months to August 1, meaning that Nurse will miss the first 13 games of next season, while the suspended sentence remains.

“I am really disappointed that I am going to be banned until August but there is not much I can do about it now,” Nurse said. “It’s a lot of cricket to miss but it’s certainly better than missing the entire season.

“I regret the decisions I made at the time but I did not think it would ever come to this. I did not really do anything. I basically got attacked and just tried to defend myself.”

Keith Harris, chairman of the cricket section at Basingstoke Sports and Social Club, said Nurse would be considered for selection when his ban finishes.

“I have no problem with Dean,” Harris said. “He is a passionate player who wears his heart on his sleeve and we wanted to get him back playing as soon as possible.

“He is a passionate guy but is not aggressive. He may have brought what happened upon himself but that does not make him part of the physical violence.

“It was always going to be a struggle to get the ban down to less than 10 games. We do not want to see incidents like this on the pitch and I think 13 games is probably just about right.”

Aston Rowant successfully appealed against a points deduction and will be promoted as a result, while their captain had an official reprimand scratched from his record.

Basingstoke would have been relegated with or without the 25 points they were docked and decided not to appeal, while Harris wants common sense to prevail in the case of captain Russell Droy, whose reprimand will remain as no appeal was made.

Harris said: “We would like the league to come out and say that as one captain has been cleared, both will have their reprimands removed.”