Almost a perfect 10!

The Rams turned in very nearly the perfect performance when they demolished Frinton on Saturday. Frinton won the toss and decided they would have first use of what looked like a very decent track. It was a used deck as Cambridgeshire had recently played and won against Lincolnshire on the same strip. In our EAPL debut season of 2020 and our first title winning season in 2021 one of the standout features was the ability of our new ball bowlers to make crucial early breakthroughs. The old firm of Smith and Vandepeer have been recently reunited following ‘Smudge’s’ return to the fold.

They turned back the clock on a deck that offered good pace and carry, but with the outfield slickened by, finally, some decent summer sun, the batsmen would gain full value for any shots. Mark Smith returned his best figures since the 2021 season as he picked up four wickets (4-30) and his partner James Vandepeer (5-57) finally getting some much-deserved reward for his excellent performances with the ball. The old adage of catches win matches was certainly true as the Sawston slip cordon snaffled some beauties!

Smith struck first when George Darlow held a sharp chest high catch, to his weaker right-hand side, to remove Barney Morton with the score on five. Josh Frame who looked in good touch but was then undone by superb yorker from our Hardwick quick. Frame and Ashane Wijesuriya have been the leading run scorers in Frinton’s stop-start season where they have suffered four call-offs. Not wishing to be left out Vandepeer struck to remove the dangerous Wijesuriya. This time Darlow at second slip, diving to this left in front of first slip to pouch yet another excellent catch. The visitors were in serious trouble at twenty for three at the beginning of the seventh. Things got even worse when Smith had Kyran Young, who had tried to dig in, well caught by Jack Beaumont low to his left eleven balls later at the end of the eighth with no addition to the score. The Essex registered wicket-keeper batsman Ronnie McKenna was joined by Charlie Bennett and they had almost doubled the score, when on thirty-nine (with the last ball of the eleventh) the ‘unlucky’ Bennett could only look back in horror as a ball from Vandepeer slowly bounced and rolled back onto his stumps. The visitors and their travelling band of supporters, were perhaps hoping that skipper Michael Coomber could muster some resistance with McKenna. Smith snuffed out that plan when he had the Frinton skipper caught behind by his opposite number just five balls later, another really smart catch!

Next in was the Frinton overseas, Renaldo Meyer, although his fearsome reputation is built on his pace bowling, he can be a dangerous man with the willow. He, however, became Vandepeer’s third victim with the score on forty-seven for seven when he was trapped by his fellow seamer in front, at the end of the thirteenth. When Connor Mitchell departed, to a regulation catch to Heath, some nine balls later, we had only just had drinks! Mckenna, who was looking assured and playing some nice strokes, finally found a partner to stick around with as number ten Ryan Harrington managed to add thirty-eight precious runs in a twenty-five ball counter attack. Harrington had just taken a liking to, perhaps a tiring, Vandepeer when the Sawston seamer had his revenge as the tail-ender edged to slip. Alex Evans taking the comfortable catch with ease. Mckenna had no option but continue to counter attack and got the visitors to three figures (from 122 balls), before reaching a well made fifty from fifty-one balls. He was trying to be inventive particularly off the bowling of spinner Beaumont, who had replaced Smith. Beaumont had his revenge when he bowled the Essex player to close the innings on one hundred and nine (from 21.4 overs). The batsman had hit nine boundaries and a square cut for six in his fifty-two-ball innings as he finished on fifty-three.

With the Rams having to start their reply before lunch! They opted to send out the Cambridgeshire Captain and Vice-captain pairing of Wayne White and Callum Guest to open. The visitors opened up with the lively pairing of Meyer and Bennett. The pitch was still offering some assistance in terms of pace and carry and despite the odd play and miss the Rams pair largely weathered the storm. Indeed, the greatest risk at times appeared the danger of a run-out as the pair, determined to rotate the strike at every opportunity, were occasionally not on the same wave-length. With both batsmen undefeated on fifteen and the score on thirty-two, after eight overs, lunch came.

After lunch the pair, and in particular White, became more expansive showing that there were not too many demons in the surface. The fifty partnership arrived off just sixty-eight balls, before White then brought up his own fifty from just forty-eight balls. The hundred stand was reached off just one hundred and one balls. This was Guest’s third ton plus opening partnership of the season. With the winning line in sight White (74 from 73) left one from left arm spinner Connor Mitchell and was bowled. Yousuf Choudhary joined Guest in the middle before Guest hit the winning boundary to finish unbeaten on twenty-six as the Rams got home by nine-wickets.

Elsewhere there were some much tighter encounters. The only remaining unbeaten side in the 2024 EAPL Copdock lost two wickets in the last over of the game as reigning champions Swardeston blew the title race wide open with their narrow win. Horsford needed extra time to defeat Norfolk rivals Great Witchingham. Bury brutally ended Saffron Walden’s recent good run. At the bottom end of the table Witham and Sudbury shared the spoils. ABW picked up some excellent points when they avoided defeat at Mildenhall to continue their good run. The defeat to the Rams left Frinton twenty-five points adrift at the bottom. Copdock’s defeat now means the top six are separated by just nineteen points. The Rams slipped a position despite a win as Horsford’s additional batting point bonus helped then to leapfrog us by three points.

The second team finally had some cheer when they avoided defeat at fellow promoted Burwell and Exning. The home side won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to bat at the lovely small ground at Mingay Park. The visitors made two early breakthroughs when Ethan Rice (1-4), bowling for the first time in about six weeks, and Will Bailey (1-41) removed Simon Donald and Nick Jones with just twenty-one on the board. The Summerskill’s, Chris (22 from 61) and Paul (32 from 45) repaired the damage with a fifty-six-run stand despite some tight bowling from the Rams. Sawston skipper Ant Phillips then struck to remove the brothers and the in-form Nik Huckle as the home side lost three wickets for eighteen runs in thirty-six balls as the innings lurched to ninety-seven for five. Dylan Hardy (22) and Charlie Sorensen (10) were slowly repairing the damage as they added twenty-eight runs (from 48 balls). The innings however was again derailed as Sorensen, Hardy and Burman were all dismissed within eleven balls as the home side limped to one hundred and thirty-two for eight in the thirty-seventh. Phillips took his tally to five (5-30) with another two wickets  and Julius Jackson  (1-31) added the other . The tail end pair of overseas Ben ‘Ned’ Kelly and Ed Manning then wagged as they added a half -century partnership in just sixty balls. The partnership was eventually ended when Manning (28 from 53) was caught off the bowling of Jake Raven. Kelly then added another nineteen runs with number eleven Connor Benton and in the process reached his personal fifty (from 53 balls) before Raven (2-33) dismissed him for a vital fifty-three as the innings closed on 223 all out.  

Sawston opened up with Liam Flynn and Charlie Lewis as they added thirty-two for the first wicket before Flynn was caught and bowled by Huckle (1-39). Lewis then added another fifty runs with the explosive Miguel Machado. In a recurring pattern the Rams then lost three wickets for just twelve runs in thirty-six balls. Machado scoring a boundary laden thirty-eight (43 balls) before he too was caught and bowled by a spinner, this time it was Kelly who struck. Kelly picked up a second (2-29) when the patient Lewis (38 from 82) was trapped in front and then Bailey was run out. The innings lurched at ninety-four for four with thirty of the possible fifty-four overs gone. The Rams needed another one hundred and thirty from one hundred and forty-four balls. Rice and Jackson then added fifty-eight for the fifth wicket in around twenty overs. With time running out it was looking like a comfortable draw for the Rams to end their miserable run. However, it is never that straight forward for the Rams this season as they then lost Rice (48 from 81), Herholdt and Philips for seven runs in twelve balls. Nick Jones (3-14) picking up all three in a desperate last throw of the dice from the home side. Jackson (21 no from 64) with a very patient knock and Griggs (8 no) ensured there were no more panics as the Rams held out for a draw on one hundred and sixty-eight for seven. Despite the draw the Rams moved to bottom of the table, as Old Leysians over-took the Rams.

The fourths recorded back-to-back ‘wins’ when Girton II’s conceded on Thursday, following on from last week’s win. They quickly arranged a friendly against Eaton Socon III’s to rescue their day of cricket. With no game scheduled at Babraham they had to use a worn pitch in order to get the game on. The friendly also gave skipper Adrian Platt the opportunity to give some youngsters a go at the top of the innings. Ethan-Hayes Fernadez (17) and Guy Savage (17)were doing the skipper proud as the pair together with Dom Cameron (21) moved the Rams to 71 for 1. The wheels then came spectacularly off as they then lost nine wickets for just twenty-one runs.  Socon’s Ragulan Tharmaraja (3-7) sparking the collapse as James Perry (2-0), Ettiene Maritz (1-2), Connor Woodward (2-13) and Thomas Cummins (1-0) bowled the Rams out for 92.

The Rams struck back early as Sam Browne picked up two wickets with youngsters Ben Latham and Alex Myles picking up wickets. However, Woodward and Callum West both with 22 no stopped the rot as the visitors got home to win by six wickets in 23 overs.

There was, for the second Sunday running, a bit of intra-club rivalry as our Cambridgeshire trio (Guest, White and Thomason)  met Jack Beaumont’s Suffolk in the NCCA Trophy (50 over Cup) Quarter-final. Last week Cambridgeshire had defeated George Darlow’s Bedfordshire to clinch their place in the knockout. This week the Cambridgeshire boys again gained the collective bragging rights as they defeated their Suffolk counterparts by eighty-five runs. Beaumont perhaps retaining the individual bragging rights, at least over Lee Thomason, by picking up four Cambridgeshire wickets. Cambridgeshire meet another of their local rivals Norfolk for a place in the final when they meet at Manor Park in the first week of August.

The Club juniors once again doing the Club’s reputation no harm at all as the Under-13’s and Under-15’s recorded excellent wins in the week. The Club’s reputation was further enhanced when we hosted the CYCA Finals Day (U11’s, U13’s and U15’s) with in particular Pat Trim and his assistants David Ellis and David Binge doing sterling work to ensure that the finals were played on decent wickets despite the early morning downpours. Their efforts were much appreciated by the CYCA Committee, who also need to be recognised for their considerable efforts over this season and many past seasons, and by all the teams that took part. These events and the County Match held previously reflect well on the Club (and its volunteers), the Parish Council (and their employees) and the Village itself!