Tibbsy's Weekend Preview! 08/05 - 09/05

Sawston and Babraham first eleven defend one of the two unbeaten records in the EAPL when they entertain Saffron Walden on Saturday. The Rams did the double over the Crocus last year and also beat them comfortably in a pre-season friendly. We will be hoping to avoid a potential banana skin, particularly as Saffron Walden would love to beat us.

Dan will be hoping our batting continues to fire and that Matthew Hague, Callum Guest and Noah Thain continue their rich vein of form. If he’s greedy he’ll want telling contributions from Waqas Hussain and new boy Ethan Guest. Walden may want early wickets but they may want to be careful of what they wish for if Tim Moses, Ben Clilverd and James Vandepeer get more than 25 balls to face. The Crocus would have been buoyed by a win against Cambridge and the narrowest of defeats against the only other 100% side Great Witchingham, last week, but perhaps will not want to remember or repeat their first day defeat at home to Mildenhall. They have been heavily dependent on veteran Giles Ecclestone’s runs although Ali Russell, Nikhil Gorantla have made contributions and Jack Sneath has made regular lower order runs. On the bowling front Nikhil has been the surprise package. It is rumoured that Walden may field their overseas, Zubayr Hamza, who has played five test matches for South Africa. The Rams are able to name an unchanged side and will be looking to extend their amazing run.

The seconds have their second consecutive home match, this time at Babraham, where they face their Burwell and Exning counterparts. The Rams will also be looking to maintain their unbeaten run, with two friendly and one league victory to date. The home side will be looking for middle order runs to compliment the early season form of Benji Benson, Ant Phillips and Matt Ellis. Nick Griggs names another strong side with the in-form Oli Borley in for Tom Barnard (who may have blown his cricket budget for the season with last week’s fines) and debutant Matthew Lee in for the absent (without-permission?) Olly North. Lee is a Premier Division class opening bowler just returning following an injury lay off. The side is boosted by James Drummond’s unexpected availability. If the debutants are short of an initiation song, they could do a lot worse than try Marc Pearson’s specially adapted cover version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s classic ‘Welcome to the Belodrome’! Burwell led by Chris Summerskill will be looking to improve on last weeks 85 run defeat at Wisbech.

The thirds despite Borley’s promotion and the absence of Tom Champness and Torin Phelps are again able to name a strong side. Chris Kerby and the reliable Jon Windsor come in and are joined by former first team captain Liam Flynn who will strengthen both batting and bowling. And talking of experience the opposition, Barrington II’s, have this in spades if they name a similar side to last week. They used this experience to good order as the defeated Lt. Shelford by 12 runs. So, both teams have 100% records and so something has to give. Jake Ellis’s men however will believe that if they perform like last week where Borley and Jon Curran were amongst the runs and that if Sean Jenkins and Scott Barker make scores then they will have too much for most sides in Division 3. They face Barrington in a ‘home’ match at Horseheath, where the village will be in attendance to welcome back, albeit briefly, the King of Horseheath!

The 4th team make the trek to Elsworth, a trip that will hold many memories for Rams of a certain age, the writer included. Fourth team cricket is about so much more than results but non-the-less Jeff Free will be hoping that his side can get off the mark. At the time of writing Player Manager Free was being very coy about his side, obviously worried that Elsworth may make an unannounced visit to tonight’s nets. Elsworth were comfortable winners in the first round of matches defeating NCI by seven wickets. A late rumour suggests that Jeff my have gone for the extra experience of Summerlin, Wetzl and Liles this week.

The Suffolk T2O Cup also gets underway on Sunday with SBCC aiming to go one better than last year when they lost on the final ball of the competition. The ethos of the competition is that it should include all members of your Club and so Dan as named a side with a pretty even split across our three most senior squads. The Rams start at home to fellow EAPL side Mildenhall.