Experience shows....

Sawston & Babraham met one of their top five rivals for the fourth week running when they met Bury St. Edmunds at Spicers. This time it was second versus third with the Rams just ahead of the Suffolk side after round twelve of the 2023 EAPL. The Rams made three changes with last week’s finger injury keeping out Luke Spears, and Alex Stafford and Charlie Lewis being unavailable. There were recalls for Ben Clilverd and Kieren Mackenzie (back from his own hand injury) and a return for Noah Thain. This would be Noah’s second game for the Club following the award of a contract with Essex.

With an uncertain forecast, with unseasonal wind, rain and threat of thunder all on the radar the home skipper Dan Heath must have been pleased to have won the toss and took the decision to field. This is the perceived wise choice in such circumstances. After a delayed start the visitors found their available overs docked by three to sixty-one. This was soon down to fifty-six when a further twenty-five-minute delay meant that the game got under-way forty-six minutes late.

The visitors made a decent start bringing up an unbeaten stand of fifty at a decent rate in just seventy-four balls. The Rams rang the changes and Ben Clilverd made the breakthrough dismissing Bury’s overseas all-rounder Nivethan Radhakrishnan with the score on sixty-nine after he had made a fluent forty-one at almost a run a ball. Clilverd (2-38) then doubled up when he dismissed Will Routledge (24 from 71) just before the compulsory lunch break. Michael Toolis and skipper Josh Cantrell two of Bury’s leading batsmen this season added a further five runs to see the visitors to the break at ninety-one for two after twenty-four overs.

They had progressed to the one hundred mark in the twenty-ninth when a further rain delay (of just over ninety minutes) saw the innings further reduced to a maximum of forty-two overs. This necessitated a change of plan and a move through the gears. Skipper Cantrell (20 from 29) was next out with the score on 124 for 3 becoming one of Callum Guest’s three victims (3-33). When Toolis (31 from 62) and the vastly experienced Sean Park had both succumbed to Guest the innings was at a crossroads at 150 for five with just four overs and four balls remaining. Alex Maynard (40 from 22) and Ben Whittaker (28 from 14) made light of this and added sixty-four from the last twenty-eight balls as the innings closed on 214 for 5.

The reduction in overs has to be applied proportionally to both sides so the Rams were set a revised target of 215 from just thirty-six overs. In a pink ball game with fielding restrictions, leg side wides and free hits off no balls you would probably still fancy the side batting second. However, without such assistance and an inconsistent batting line up this term it would take quite an effort to get home. Perhaps those last twenty-eight balls while adding considerably to the challenge also showed that the pitch was pretty benign.

The Rams openers like their Bury counterparts brought up their own fifty partnership, this time off just fifty-eight balls. Wayne White and eighteen-year-old Yousuf Choudhary had moved the score onto sixty-two (from 39 balls) when a familiar face in an unfamiliar uniform struck. Mark Smith (1-27) who had just left the Rams, after a decade with the Club, struck to remove Choudhary after a fluent knock (28 from 26). He was replaced by Louis Kimber, who was promoted to number three in Spears absence. The Leicestershire batsman was in great nick in midweek when he scored a rapid sixty-odd in the rain affected County Championship match against Glamorgan. White, a retired pro-cricketer and Kimber then showed their experience and class as they took the score to 102 for 1 after twenty-one overs at the start of the last hour.

The playing regulations state that a minimum of seventeen overs must be bowled in that last hour (designed to stop time wasting and a deliberate reduction of overs). This meant that the Rams gained a bonus of two overs giving then a maximum of thirty-eight. Kimber was particularly fluent as he raced to eighty-six (from 57 balls with 5 x4 and six maximums). He was finally out chasing a wide delivery from Radhakrishnan with the score on 190 for two in the thirty-third. The experienced pair had added 128 from just 159 balls.

Thain then joined White and seemed to be easily taking the Rams to victory before he became another victim of Radhakrishnan (2-53) whilst attempting to finish a game with a boundary. This left White on strike with just six balls to go and with three still required. White smacked the second ball for four to finish unbeaten on eighty-four (from 120 balls) as the Rams got home by seven wickets and four balls to spare.

Leaders Swardeston in a similar game to the Ram’s got home chasing 174 after slipping to forty-one for four at Great Witchingham. Cal Taylor and overseas Saranga Rajaguru both starring with bat and ball as the leaders maintained their eighteen-point gap over the Rams at the top. Mildenhall slipped up against Witham, for the second year running; and with Copdock holding on for the draw at Walden with the Essex side overtaking the Suffolk side in the process as they moved into third. The top two have a nice cushion but third to Witham in seventh are separated by just six points! Wisbech were progressing nicely until the Frinton tornado (Renaldo Meyer 7-44) blew in and are grateful that Sudbury continued to get back on track to leave Horsford adrift at the bottom.

It was a frustrating day for the Rams seconds who were chasing their ninth successive victory away at Ufford Park. With the weather and forecast not looking favorable the match was shortened to a forty over aside contest. Sawston batted first and posted a challenging 218. They were unable however to take advantage of this score as the match was abandoned without the home side batting. The Rams frustration increased as news filtered in that their closest rivals Burwell and Saffron Walden had both beaten the weather and their opponents. This now means that the Rams have two abandonments on their record whereas Walden only have one and Burwell none. With twenty-five or thirty points for a win and only five for an abandoned game this gives a big advantage to their rivals.

It was a bit like after ‘the Lord Mayor’s Show’ for the third team following their stunning victory against the league leaders Lt. Shelford last week. They couldn’t follow up last week’s victory as they suffered a heavy defeat to Ickleton who sit second in the league. The visitors won the toss at Babraham Park and unsurprisingly decided to bat. Openers Charles Garrad (19) and Matthew Sherry put on fifty-five for the first wicket before the again impressive James Petzer (1-22) had Garrad caught behind. Ickleton’s skipper Sherry (48) was next to go undone by his opposite number Jake Ellis (1-41) with the score on eighty-three. Paul Andrews (78) then dominated an eighty-seven-run partnership with Tom Arkwright before Sam Browne had him caught. Arkwright (27 no) remained unbeaten as the visitors lost a couple more wickets as they attempted to push on in the final overs. The experienced Sean Jenkins (1-32) and the amazing twelve-year-old Vivaan Kilaru (1-41) helping to restrict the damage to 201 for five.

In reply Wes Potschul (27), Ollie Borley (30) and Alex Day (22) had helped the Rams to a promising 93 for 3 before the wheels came off and the home side were dismissed in the thirtieth over for just 103. There were braces for Alex Green (2-20), Mark Lafferty (2-6) and Sherry (2-17) with the home side contributing to their own downfall with two run outs.

The fourths visited Bassingbourn and despite excellent knocks from skipper Marcus Wetzl (41) and a half century from Andrew Leonard they were bowled out for 140. An excellent bowling performance almost stole an unlikely victory as the home side were grateful to Manjula Kanakaratne’s sixty-six to get them home by three wickets and just two overs to spare. Youngsters Sam Russell (2-19), Joel Dennington (2-26) backed up uber-veteran Adrian Platt who bowled eight miserly overs for just eight runs picking up two wickets. Guy Savage (1-23) picked up the wicket of Kanakaratne but by then he had almost got the home side over the line.