Busy weekend lays ahead

We are truly at the business end of the season and all the Rams sides on duty need wins for contrasting reasons.

The first eleven entertain Frinton in a fifty-over pink ball contest. They are forced into a couple of changes as Luke Spears and Noah Thain are unavailable, with Yousuf Choudhary returning from injury and a call up for Sean Ward.

The side from the Essex coast have had an inconsistent season and sit tenth, of twelve, in the league but are well clear of any relegation play off danger. One of their issues appears to have been in getting a settled side out as they have used twenty-three players so far this year. The Rams will hope that one of Frinton’s longest trips will discourage a few from travelling. The Essex side however have good contacts and can often spring a surprise selection or two! Another big issue for them is that their leading wicket-taker Renaldo Meyer (with forty-four from just fourteen matches) has been recalled to his native South Africa for some representative cricket. The Rams will be particularly pleased that he’s not coming to Spicers, as he took eight wickets in the return match at Frinton!

However, they are still a dangerous side as Swardeston, the league leaders, will testify as Frinton almost caused an upset last week. In Arshane Wijesuriya and Josh Frame they have runs scoring and wicket taking all-rounders backed up by experienced skipper Michael Coomber. Josh Rymell like our own Noah Thain has been getting Essex first team opportunities of late.

The Rams realistically have to win all of their remaining fixtures, with the sort of dash to the line that secured titles in 2021 and 2022. With some of the batters finding a bit of form for them and / or Cambridgeshire they will be keen to build on last week’s impressive win at Sudbury.

Top meets bottom at Swardeston who entertain Wisbech. Bury need to defeat Suffolk rivals Mildenhall, as third meets fifth, to keep their very slim title hopes alive. Horsford visit Copdock and will be keen to put more distance between themselves and Wisbech at the foot of the table. Saffron Walden host Witham and Sudbury visit Great Witchingham.

The Rams second eleven with just two games to go have almost as much mileage to do as the fifth team have done this week. Our social squad have been touring York this week. This week the seconds visit Castor and Ailsworth. In recent seasons Castor have been pushing for promotion but have been very inconsistent this year, with player unavailability having a big impact. However, they still have many of their good players still at the Club so that they can be a very dangerous opposition on their day.

Nothing other than two victories will be good enough to secure the title and promotion. The Rams did enjoy a seven-wicket success in the reverse fixture but will be wary as they put in their worst performance of 2022 when they last visited this opposition.   

There may only be one promotion place up for grabs if Wisbech finish bottom of the EAPL and lose in the play-offs as they would return to the Cambs and Hunts Premier league structure which increases the need for another victory.

The third team visit second placed Ickleton knowing that they need a victory to give themselves a chance of avoiding the drop. They will perhaps hope that the home side suffer another blip like last week when they were bundled out for just a hundred.

The third team, and their, record breaking skipper Jake Ellis, are aiming to create more history on Sunday when the play in the Walker Cup T20 Finals Day, at Exning. Sawston have won the trophy twice and Sawston and Babraham once since the competition became a T20 format in 2007. However, all three of these victories were for the Club’s second team. They face Histon III in the first semi-final, a side competing at a similar level to themselves. If they win, they then would be the underdogs in the final as they would face higher ranked Senior league opposition in the final, either Horseheath or Thriplow. Ellis may prefer Horseheath as that is his former Club and that side still contains two or three more Ellis’s!