Rams revved up and raring to go!

Well, the calendar says its cricket season but I’m not sure the weather agrees.

With a lot of the EAPL sides making eye-catching, and in some cases, headline grabbing, recruitment this year’s competition promises to be the most competitive for a number of years. The current bookies favourites, or at least amongst the other EAPL sides is Great Witchingham. This is on the back of the recruitment of two ex-England players in the shape of Monty Panesar and Olly Stone backing up the big hitting Aussie, and BBL star, Jake Weatherald. The Norfolk side are dreaming of a fairy tale end to their Centenary season.

For me it will be interesting on how these star names fit and gel with their teammates. If you look at the winning teams in the last four years, Swardeston and us with two wins apiece, those successes have been achieved by sides who’s whole was greater than the sum of the individual parts. That is not to say that both these sides didn’t have quality players but both sides have squads where all made match winning contributions at some point in the season. Weatherald although an exciting talent, and I suggest you don’t park in Great Witchingham when they play at home, as he hits a big ball, has a big act and a lot of runs to make up with the loss of their previous overseas Yaseen Valli.

It will be an interesting first couple of weeks and expect some strange results as most sides enter the fray slightly undercooked, not many have had the luxury of a pre-season warm up game. The Rams losing four such opportunities to the elements. The weather and damper wickets will also make the toss vital in some of the early exchanges.

The Rams who are extremely happy with their squad strengthened from last year’s complement by adding long term target Jack Beaumont (from Copdock), Ethan Rice (from Eaton Socon), and Cambridgeshire’s Lee Thomason. We are also delighted to welcome back George Darlow from our 2021 and 2022 title winning sides. Skipper Dan Heath is also hopeful that Noah Thain will be available for a lot more games now he is free from his school, exams and England u-19 commitments. However, he is also in the Essex first team squad so selfishly we hope that Essex has an excellent and injury free season! We have lost Louis Kimber who has joined EAPL new boys Ashmanaugh and Barton Wanderers (AB Wanderers), however he looks like he’s getting a run in Leicestershire’s four-day side as well as the limited overs sides so his availability may be reduced. So once again we go into the season bucking the trend and going in without an overseas, however most weeks we will have nine all-rounders and a wicket keeper to juggle with! The only non-allrounder, Yousuf Choudhary, is keen for me to mention his ‘impressive’ net bowling over the winter!

The Rams visit Horsford on Saturday, with the home side adding a South African Jordan Neil to their squad. They however will again rely heavily on home grown talent and recruits from other Norfolk sides. They have however made a significant investment, off the field, by installing a couple of hybrid pitches, the first in the league. Apart from Neil they will again look for contributions from their Norfolk County contingent of Ryan Findlay and the Metcalf’s, and hope skipper Neil Hornbuckle can again lead the way with bat and ball. Last year they found runs coming at a bit of a premium and will want to score more heavily this year.  They started well in 2023 before a disastrous run saw them needing a strong finish to avoid the relegation play-off game at the expense of Wisbech.

Elsewhere in the EAPL Mildenhall on the back of recruiting another quality Indian player in K C Cariappa, the retention of Northants’ Saif Zaib and the return of Cambridgeshire’s Jack Potticary get an early test of their title aspirations visiting reigning champions Swardeston. Bury St. Edmunds, who finished a creditable third last time, host and test the metal of the bookies favourites Great Witchingham. The EAPL new boys AB Wanderers visit Sudbury for their taster. Frinton host Witham and Copdock are at home to Saffron Walden in the other games.

The Rams second team make the debut in the Cambridgeshire and Hunts Premier League Division One, which is a feeder league for the EAPL. It is the highest the second string have ever played at and the highest level that they can play at. Club legend Matthew Hague will be a big miss and we expect a tough season. Their immediate aim will be to win their ‘own’ division which consists of the three sides that came up from Division Two with them and Southill Park who escaped the relegation trap door in 2023. They hope to benefit from the strength of the first team squad, who have a talented 15-16 man squad, with only eleven spots available! They have also recruited well with Julius Jackson and Luke Herholdt joining last year’s overseas Christy O’Brien (our Croatian international from NZ). All three play on Saturday when Histon are the visitors to Spicers and they will be joined by Jake Paris who will be making only his second appearance for the Rams. They are boosted by the presence of James Vandepeer, a slight back strain (a souvenir of his winter to Australia) keeping him out of the first team, although Jimmy will only play as a batsman. They are however missing skipper Ant Phillips as the make their bow.