Short trip to Bury St Edmunds
Sawston and Babraham make the comparatively short trip to Bury St. Edmunds on Saturday as we enter the final month of the season. The Rams will be looking to extend their perfect, six from six, pink ball record. The opposition are three from six in the shorter format, but must go back about a dozen games to remember their last victory.
With the Rams top, back to full strength and playing their favourite format against an opposition missing one of their best players, short on confidence and one point off bottom of the table what could possibly go wrong! Fortunately, we all know sport in general isn’t always as straightforward as that and the Rams will do well to remember that Bury enjoyed the better of the draw in the red ball game at Spicers. They were also three wins from the first four pink ball games, picking up the scalps of Mildenhall and Swardeston on the way. With temperatures forecast to soar the toss may also be a factor.
Ben Seabrook is a big miss at the top of the order but Jacob Miltz has had a fantastic season with seven hundred runs at an average of forty-six and he sits two places behind the Rams Mr Consistent (Callum Guest) in fifth in the race to be the EAPL to run scorer. Josh Cantrell has also scored over five hundred runs but they will need more from Justin Bishop and George Lloyd to fill the Seabrook void. Wickets have been at a bit of a premium but Alex Cruickshank, Ali Allchin and Cantrell will pose a threat.
The Rams make only one change as Tim Moses replaces footballer Charlie Lewis. They may also have Ben Clilverd available to bat again after being unable to grip a bat last week.
Guest will be looking to keep up his run and close the gap on the top two, as will Peter Hatzoglou in the bowling stakes. Skipper Dan Heath will also be looking to catch up with his opposite number Miltz in the dismissals table. Sawston youngster Noah Thain and fit again Luke Spears will be looking to go big following a couple of decent starts.
The Rams second team are at home to Foxton hoping to put last week’s misery behind them. They will also be looking to double up on local rivals Foxton when the sides meet at Spicers. The Rams make three changes as Ant Phillips, Steve Atherton and Matt Day miss out. In come Oliver Borley, Aaron Pledger and Oli North. Matt Worsdale makes a home debut with his team mates looking for a longer look at the new boy. Chris Dixon’s massive lead at the top of the league’s leading wicket-taker contest took a massive hit last week as his closest rival picked up a six-fer (unfortunately against us). They make another change in the scorebox where Becca Free steps up.
The third team will be looking to cement their place in the promotion contest in CCA Junior 2s. They have last week’s bowling hero Meryn Shaji again available and strengthen with the addition of Henry Butler and a give a season debut to Tom Champness. They will be looking to avenge a loss they suffered at Haslingfield. They will again look for runs at the top of the order from Wes Potschul and Gareth Everson, with James Watson added to the line up and Joe Latham returning. The skipper will also be looking for more wickets, and runs, and has regulars Joe Greenstock and Prashant Yadav to highlight his strength in depth. The in-form Scott Barker will be missed but the side should have enough to be very competitive.
The fourths face a daunting trip to Elsworth but should only have holidays and injuries to worry about as the other three teams have been more stable in the last three weeks.