1's, 2's & 3's all in action! Tibbsy weekend preview 31/07

Sawston and Babraham welcome Horsford to Spicers on Saturday. This, hopefully, will be our first ever meeting with the away fixture washed out earlier in the season. The Rams will be looking for another victory to build on last week’s win and to try to remain top of the division. They will be wary of a side in the lower half, indeed who were bottom until last week’s stunning victory over, the then then, league leaders.

They certainly appear to be a better side in the longer format and have recorded wins not only against Gt.Witchingham but also Swardeston and Frinton! Indeed, their only defeats in the time games have come against Cambridge and Saffron Walden.

So, they are a bit of an enigma wrapped in a mystery and one wonders which Horsford will turn up on Saturday. Now their relegation fears have been, apparently, eased will they relax or ……. Looking at the statistics you can perhaps see the seat of their problems as you need to go down to the fourth page before you find their leading run-getters Ryan Findlay (with 257) and Stephan Marillier (251). Findlay is also the man in form with the ball with thirteen of his twenty-nine victims coming in the last three games, all against sides in the top four. He will be supported by the experienced pair of Ashley Watson and Chris Browne, the latter one of the leading wicket-takers in the minor counties scene. Browne has 419 career victims showing on play cricket however his appearances have been irregular this term.

The Rams look to fill a void at the top of the innings as regular openers Matthew Hague, the less said about that the better!, and Charlie Lewis are both out for the rest of the season. The in-form Rishi Patel is also needed by Leicestershire for the next 2 weeks at least. Skipper Dan Heath brings back Ethan Guest, AP Stafford and introduces new signing Aaron Thomason.

The Rams 2nd XI travel to Alconbury to play AK, a side with Kashmiri links, who have just moved off the foot of the table. On paper an easy game for the Sawston side looking for a seventh successive victory. They will not take the opposition lightly as their brand of ‘exciting’ cricket can be dangerous on its day. They have also won their last two, so let’s avoid that potential banana skin.

The Rams have three players in the top ten run scorers in the division with Skipper Ben Benson top of the pile with 589, Ant Phillips is second on 363 and Josh Jordan tenth with 265. AK’s top run-scorers in contrast are Shezhad Akhter with 130 and Sudheer Jafeer with just 107. Skipper Mohammed Naddem Zahid with sixteen wickets leads the way with the ball, but his sixteen wickets is five fewer than Jake Raven and only a couple more than Phillips but they appear to be a stronger bowling unit. The pitch is also a bit of an unknown quantity since it will be our first ever visit. Marc Pearson misses out through work commitments and is replaced by Torin Phelps.

The third team, third in Division 3, host leaders Fen Ditton who they trail by twenty points but have two games in hand. Skipper Jake Ellis was delighted with his under-strength teams performances both in last Saturday’s league game and in reaching the Lower Junior Cup finals day on Sunday. Marc Pearson strengthens the side with both bat and ball, if he can get in the skipper’s ear enough! The fourths have another day off but have arranged a friendly, away at Fulbourn on the Sunday.