You can't keep digging holes!

I said at the start of the season that there would a few strange results given that most teams pre-seasons were severely restricted. We have just completed week two of EAPL 2023 and we only have two unbeaten sides. Sadly, for Sawston and Babraham we are not one of them.

On Saturday the Rams travelled to Bury St. Edmunds where the home side won the toss and decided to bat. This looked a brave decision as James Vandepeer produced his party piece early wicket and Alex Evans weighed in with another to leave the hosts on eighteen for two. Two of Bury’s new recruits Will Routledge and their overseas Nivethan Radhakrishnan succumbing early. The hosts skipper Josh Cantrell and another new recruit Michael Toolis steadied the ship getting the hosts to eighty-one without any further loss at the half way mark.

The dreaded drinks break then struck as Alex Stafford (1-33) snared Cantrell leg before (28 from 63 balls). The loss of the skipper was the trigger for a mini collapse as Toolis (32 from 83) was run out by Ben Claydon after a bit of hesitant running, and then Max Whittaker was undone by a beauty from Mark Smith to leave Bury on ninety-three for five. The vastly experienced Tom Rash (41 not out from 74 balls) then rebuilt the innings with help from Ben Whittaker (21 from 24) as the pair added forty-one runs. Claydon (2-32) then made a couple of breakthroughs to remove Whittaker and Maynard to leave Bury on 148 for 7. Rash was left stranded as Cruickshank was run out, before Vandepeer (2-24) and Evans (2-33) closed out the innings by sharing the last two wickets. The hosts finished on 164, which certainly looked to be a score the Rams would be confident of knocking off on a decent surface.

The Rams started their reply in a similar vein to last week’s great escape as Yousuf Chowdhary, Callum Guest and Luke Spears were all dismissed with only twenty-four on the board. With Rash, who clearly enjoys tormenting the Rams (following his five wicket haul for Mildenhall last year), picking up two of the early wickets (2-19) and Ben Whittaker the other (1-22). In echoes of the first innings Ben Claydon (36 from 81 balls) and Noah Thain (28 from 29) steadied the ship and moved the score along to eighty-five before the latter became Radhakrishna’s first victim.

The curse of drinks then struck for the second time as first Claydon, then Stafford and Heath were all dismissed within the space of five balls as 101 for 4 became 101 for 7. Home skipper Cantrell picking up Claydon whilst the slow left arm of Bury’s overseas picked up his second and third victims. The Rams were in need of the tail end heroics that saved them last week, however Cantrell picked up his second (2-17) as he removed Evans to stop him repeating last week’s performance. Radhakrishna then completed an excellent spell by picking up MacKenzie and Smith to finish with his first five-fa (5-45) for the hosts. The other hero from last week Vandepeer was left unbeaten on eight as the Rams finished thirty-nine runs short with fourteen overs remaining!

The long unbeaten fifty-over run finally ended, sixteen being the unlucky number. The result left the hosts joint top of the table with Mildenhall as the only two sides with perfect records. Elsewhere Mildenhall crushed Witham, but highly fancied Sudbury (at Horsford) and Copdock (at home to Saffron Walden) both joined the Rams in suffering their first defeats. One of the pre-season favourites Great Witchingham suffered back to back defeats this time at the hands of local rivals Swardeston. The new boys Wisbech also got off the mark to leave Frinton in the bottom two.

Elsewhere there was better news for Rams fans as the second team got their league campaign off to a winning start in the Cambridgeshire and Hunts Premier Two. The visitors Biggleswade won the toss and decided to bat. They proceeded to bat themselves smoothly into a handy position with forty-eight on the board without loss at the end of the ninth over. The Rams young seamers Will Bailey and Callum McLean then put the squeeze on as the run rate tumbled as only eleven runs were added in the next eight overs. They were both unlucky not to get their first league wickets of the year but perhaps can claim an assist as Jake Raven struck to remove Dagless (23 from 56 balls) in his first over. Raven in tandem with McLean continued to restrict the Biggleswade innings but skipper Fensome joined opener Wintroube and they moved the score on steadily to 78 for one after twenty-third over. There was absolute mayhem as once again the threat of drinks and drinks derailed the innings. Matt Worsdale shelled a difficult caught and bowled with his first legitimate delivery of the over, a quick thinking Matthew Hague with a full length dive broke the stumps at the bowler’s end to run out Fensome.

Cue drinks. After drinks and four balls later Worsdale had Connor Robson brilliantly caught by the diving Bailey. The first ball of the twenty-fifth over ended Wintroube’s resistance (33 from 75) as Kiwi keeper Christy O’Brien claimed his first victim for the Club by stumping the opener off Raven (2-22). Worsdale picked up his second (2-20) with the second ball of the twenty-sixth over with Rob Wright being caught by debutant Ollie Humphreys. The visitors had slipped from 78 for 1 to 79 for 5 in fourteen eventful balls! Shadrack Diggins-Browne (17) then retaliated with a couple of lusty blows before opening bowler Bailey finally gained a reward for his excellent spells to leave Biggleswade 105 for 6. Chris Walford batted sensibly to marshal the tail despite Matthew Hague (2-28) picking up the wickets of Gabe Manthorp and Thomas Boyd at the other end. Walford (41 from 70) then added a valuable thirty-eight runs with George Boyd before he was caught behind off Bailey (2-23). The innings finished six runs later when a suicidal run was attempted, leaving the Rams to score 167 to secure victory.

The Rams lost two early wickets as Gittens-Browne picked up Bailey and Hague in a controlled opening spell. O’Brien joined Marc Pearson at the crease with the home side still requiring 130 more runs. They started circumspectly at first before becoming more expansive. They added sixty-four runs before the visitors gambled successfully to bring back Gittens-Browne (3-40) for a much needed breakthrough. Pearson mis-timing a pull after adding an excellent thirty-six (from 46 balls). Sawston’s new skipper Ant Phillips (15 not out from 25) then joined his wicket-keeper as they added an unbeaten seventy-eight runs in just 57 balls. The Kiwi finishing the game inside thirty overs as he scored his last thirty-one runs off just nine balls as he finished unbeaten on 87 (72 balls, 8 x 4, and 5 maximums). This gave the Rams a perfect thirty point start to the season.

There was a couple of wickets for youngster Sam Ronco and an excellent spell and a confidence building knock from new signing Arshad Gupta. An unbeaten half-century from Ian Smith was the highlight as a mixed third and fourth team performed well against a higher level Cherry Hinton side in the last warm up before the league program gets underway.