Stephen Hirst admits the arrival of Australian quick Shaun Tait was a distraction for Chipstead, but promised his side would not make the same mistake again.

The 26-year-old, who has played three tests and 22 one day internationals for Australia, is playing at Chipstead as he bids to regain his fitness following injury.

His brother Jarrad was already at the club for the summer and Shaun has joined him to get some cricket under his belt before joining up with the Australian A squad at the end of July.

However, Tait was on the losing side at the weekend as Chipstead collapsed against Staines & Laleham with the bat, and were unable to defend a well below par total of 175 all out.

And 1st XI skipper Hirst revealed the arrival of 'Sloon' caused a distraction in the Chips dressing room.

He said: "Our preparation was all wrong. All through the week people at the club were talking about how he was going to blow them away and I think players were not focussing on their own games.

"We were in a good position at 100-2 and from there any decent side should get at least 200. I think 220 would have been enough.

"To be fair they played really well but I think we played really badly. I don't think we'll be that bad again next week and we'll have got a bit more used to having a test player in our dressing room."

Hirst caused a major surprise by not opening the bowling attack with the South Australian but instead kept faith with Elliot Noble and Jarrod Tait.

"I didn't want it to become a situation where we rely on him. We were going for promotion before he arrived and I have faith in the other players too.

"But when I did bring him on he was bowling faster than anything we'd ever seen and he was only bowling off half a run up.

"Shaun only got one wicket but was a class above. He found the edge a number of times but in many ways was too good to get them out as they couldn't get near him.

"I think he'll just get better every game and we'll now be in a position to cope with the anticipation."