Busy weekend lays ahead! Tibbsy's weekend preview 24.07 - 25.07

This weekend is perhaps the Club’s busiest of the season with three games on both Saturday and Sunday.

The first team make that short journey to local rivals Saffron Walden and will be wary of the threat posed by the Crocus. Walden are on a pretty miserable run of five successive defeats but have recently welcomed back South African Zubayr Hamza. With the ball Cambridgeshire’s Ally Hancock holds perhaps the greatest threat.

The Rams once again have Rishi Patel available, fresh from his excellent 70 for Leicestershire in their One-day Cup win. The return of spin-duo Callum Guest and George Darlow, in for Marc Pearson and Ethan Guest, is timely given the challenges of bowling out sides at the Anglo-American Sports Ground. On paper the Rams will need a win as leaders Gt.Witchingham will be confident of extending their lead at the top of the table when they visit basement boys Horsford.

On Sunday the Rams visit Surry Premier League leaders East Molesley in the Conference Cup. In come Cambridgeshire’s Lee Tomason, Alex Stafford, Ethan Guest and bus driver Ollie Borley replacing Patel, Darlow, Moses and Lewis as the Rams name an excellent squad for a tough game. The return of Alex Stafford bolsters the seconds as they look to tighten their grip on the title in Whitings Premier Three. Alex Long in for Torin Phelps is the only other change as the Rams look to extend their winning streek to six matches.

With the first team on Conference Cup duty the burden falls on the 2nd team plus a few to represent the Club in the bi-ennial fixture against the MCC. The MCC side will probably made up of EAPL players and so it will be a hard match for the boys, particularly as traditionally the MCC bat first!

The third team, finally, return to league action keen to put their first defeat of the season right. They face a potentially tricky tie away to Ashdon. Skipper Jake Ellis was keeping his sides under wraps but he did disclose that his bowling career was over! They will be looking for a win, on Sunday, against Girton II’s that will take the defending Champions into the Lower Junior Cup Finals Day. If they achieve this it will be arguably better winning the competition in 2019 given the number of players made ineligible by 2nd team appearances.