Seconds out round two……
Two of the first day winners of EAPL 2023 meet on Saturday when the reigning champions, Sawston and Babraham, travel to the Victory Ground to meet Bury St. Edmunds.
With the Rams somehow getting over the line against Swardeston and Bury securing a confidence boosting victory over Frinton last week. Both sides will be looking for a knockout blow to keep their fledgling perfect records going.
The sides met in a pre-season game, which after a scare or two the Cambridgeshire side won by six wickets. Although a win is a win and always good for confidence not much is being taken for granted as both sides are likely to be stronger than in the friendly. Bury finished the 2022 campaign in free fall but have recruited heavily for the new season and have high hopes of a better campaign this time out. Young all-rounders Nivethan Radhakrishnan and Will Routledge have joined, with the former joining from Australia as the club’s overseas and a player coach. Michael Toolis is another new arrival and will combine playing with a coaching role at the club. With the loss of some experienced players in 2022 and during the winter the recruitment of the vastly experienced Tom Rash is perhaps the most significant capture. Or we should say recapture, as the former Suffolk captain is re-joining the Club where it all started for him in the EAPL. The Rams will be wary of Rash who took five wickets for Mildenhall against them in last year’s title decider.
The Rams whose own winter squad refresh and recruitment was designed to give them both more strength in depth and a more consistent availability. Its early days but this has so far come to fruition. Skipper Dan Heath with almost a full squad to choose from makes two changes. Essex’s Young Cricketer of the Year Noah Thain comes in for the injured Ben Clilverd and Alex Stafford for Yousuf Chowdhary. AP was difficult to ignore given his MoM performance with bat and perhaps more importantly with ball in the friendly. That’s him totally set up for a stinker!
The Rams will be looking for a more disciplined performance with the ball and some time in the middle for the top order as they try to stretch their winning run in the fifty over game to sixteen consecutive victories.
The Rams second string get their league campaign underway against Biggleswade under new skipper Ant Phillips. They warmed up with a narrow win against Burwell and Exning and a narrow defeat against Newmarket in last week’s strange T20 competition. Phillips will also be looking for more consistency in performance and availability this term. Last year the cricket played by the seconds was either near perfect or absolutely abject. He will again benefit from having Club legend Matthew Hague and new ‘overseas’ Christy O’Brien available for selection. The latter making up for the huge gap at the top of the order by the loss of former wicket-keeper opening bat and skipper Ben Benson. He will also hope to have slow left armer Jake Raven available for the first time since his return from Australia. T
he thirds kick off their preparations in earnest with a tough looking friendly at home to Cherry Hinton. Skipper Jake Ellis will be hoping to benefit from the more settled selection of the two sides above. He will be also hoping that some of his younger players will have matured even more as they again prepare to play in a higher league this year following a succession of promotions. He is also pleased to have recruited a bit of experience in Niall Barber, a local player who has enjoyed playing at the third team home ground at Babraham, against the Rams, more than once!