Tibbsy's Weekend Preview!

SBCC surely face their biggest challenge to date when the take on Sudbury CC on Saturday.

Sudbury rank amongst the top three sides in the entire EAPL and were Champions in 2017 and 2018, narrowly missing out to Frinton last year. They sit second in the 2020 EAPL Southern section and like the hosts are unbeaten, SBCC are top by virtue of Sudbury having one game called off. The visitors although not at full strength this season are still a formidable side and warmed up for this week’s encounter by demolishing Frinton by nine wickets last week.

Sudbury boast three guys in Batch, Parker and Cull who average more than forty with the bat this term. Batch with 12 wickets just leads Sadler with 11 wickets for a side that regularly scores 200+ and regularly bowls out the opposition.

SBCC skipper knows his charges will need to be at their very best in all aspects of the game to hold off Sudbury. He will be looking to the batting line up for more consistency and for a few of the batsmen to capitalise on the starts they have given themselves this term. His confidence will be boosted by the form of his bowling unit where he will be looking for early wickets from Tim Moses and Mark Smith, and wickets and control from two of the top five wicket takers in the Southern section Callum Guest (with 15) and George Darlow (11). SBCC’s availability remains excellent with the only change being Scott Stanford coming in for James Vandepeer. Vandepeer, of late, being a makeshift opening bat to supplement his bowling will be a big miss but the skipper knows he still has a lot of options for batting and bowling at his disposal.

Arguably there is more pressure on Sudbury as a defeat would widen the gap at the top of the table to more than the 25 points available for a win, whereas even with a defeat, SBCC would still be in the title race. The skipper will potentially have his biggest challenge of the year in the lead up to Monday’s game at home to Copdock. Depending on the result on Saturday he will either be trying to keep their feet firmly on the ground or trying to pick them up following their first ever EAPL defeat and first league defeat for over a season and a half. Some of his team have never tasted defeat in Sawston colours (in black or white).

Sawston won a high scoring match at Copdock earlier in the season and the home side will be wary of Ben Claydon who scored at big ton in the reverse fixture. Skipper Heath names an unchanged side from Saturday – with the hope everyone survives the Gin and Prosecco evening on Saturday.