DILLON Pennington is delighted to have put his injury frustrations behind him after making his first senior appearance of the season.

Pennington was looking to build on last season’s promising first team breakthrough when eight Championship appearances yielded 22 wickets and some highly encouraging performances, most notably against Yorkshire at Scarborough and Surrey at Blackfinch New Road.

A foot injury was followed by an ankle ligament setback in pre-season training and then bad weather hampered his back to bowling programme with the Seconds.

But Pennington is fit now and showed glimpses of his potential and capabilities in last week’s Specsavers County Championship Division Two loss to Derbyshire at Kidderminster.

“The body was a bit sore from bowling a few overs but everything is pretty sound,” said Pennington on his ankle.

“I feel really good and I’ve loved being back bowling and it’s great to have a crowd (watching).

“I got back from the injury and the weather held me off a little bit in terms of my overs. I’m fully fit now. I bowled 30 overs in two days (at Kidderminster) and still felt pretty fresh.

“It has been frustrating after last season but everyone gets injuries and I just had to wait for the right time to be back.

“Benny (Ben Davies) and Dewsy (Ross Dewar) have done a fantastic job to get me back this early really and playing first team cricket.

Pennington added: “I loved last season. It was brilliant and that is why I was itching to get back and so keen to get my rehab perfect and keep my fitness as good as possible so I can try and emulate what I did last year.

“I thought I bowled okay at Kidderminster. But it’s still early days.”