Top of the Table battles! - Tibbsy's Weekend Preview! 05/06

For the third consecutive week Sawston and Babraham face a top of the table battle. They will be hoping for a hat-trick following important wins against Swardeston and Bury.

This time the Rams face Mildenhall who themselves have made a very positive start and are currently second in the league. Their league position owes much to their 50 over form, three wins from four. In the longer format they have twice been thwarted by the weather and last week almost defeated Gt. Witchingham finishing four runs short with nine wickets down, so honours even. Mildenhall have a well balanced, mostly home grown young squad. Tom Rash, Nicholas Smit and Jack Potticary have been the leading lights with the bat. The Rams will be wary of the hard hitting Potticary, who has saved some of his better performances for us. Rash and Smit have also been prominent with the ball and Matt Allen has chipped in with useful wickets.

Sawston skipper Dan Heath makes a one change with Charlie Lewis returning following his excellent fifty for the seconds with Ethan Guest missing out. Sawston are delighted to have Rishi Patel in the fold again following his match-clinching fifty last week. The home side will again look to the bowling unit to deliver once again. The in-form Mark Smith is chasing down Sawston old-boy Henry Campbell in the race for the ‘Golden Ball’, whilst Skipper Heath leads the way in the 'Golden Glove’. Sawston will also be hoping that Ben Clilverd and Callum Guest continue their fine form shown for both the Rams and Cambridgeshire.

The seconds also face a top of the table clash when they travel to the picturesque Southill Park. The Bedfordshire side sit second, 47 points adrift. Sawston having a greater number of victories, indeed they are still unbeaten, but have played one more game. They will hope to leave Bedfordshire on Saturday night with an unblemished record and a two game cushion at the top of the league. Despite losing Charlie Lewis and Matt Lee, and Matthew Hague and Alex Stafford from Monday they still name a strong looking side with impressive full debutant Will Bailey looking to continue where he left off on Monday. Marc Pearson and Matt Ellis both come in after being absent on Monday.

The thirds whilst not quite being a full strength still name an impressive line up for the home game against Newton. They will be looking to avoid a potential banana skin when they entertain Newton, there is a little history in the ‘banana skin’ department in this fixture. Jake Ellis will hope that the absence of Ollie Borley and Jon Curran from the batting line up will not blunt it too much. He has bolstered his spin attack by adding Adam Hodgkisson to an talented seam attack.

The fourths face their own first versus second game when they make the short trip across the river and railway line to leaders Stapleford. This will be a tough game with Stapleford perhaps being a division or two lower than they ought to be. The Rams will no doubt try to stick their youth centric philosophy and hope to be competitive.