It was indeed a super-Saturday

I billed this weekend as a potential super Saturday with all four sides in action in a number of challenging fixtures. It was also our Sponsors and Supporters Day, and lunch. With so much activity and focus going on it was also important to see some success on the field. The Club had already had a very successful and extremely busy Friday night as the formal side of its All-Stars and Dynamos program reached its conclusion.

Despite a terrific winning performance by the first team, I’m sure that they will not mind allowing the second team top billing this week. The second’s have endured a tough season on the pitch, and despite last week’s encouraging performance they travelled to Southill Park still in hope rather than in expectation that they would record their first ever win in the Onyx Premier One division. With resources again stretched they were forced into a number of changes but skipper Ant Phillips returned to captain the side.

The Rams won the toss and decided to bowl in the picturesque surroundings at Southill Park. Sean Jenkins, another returning to the starting line-up, in a reprise of his first team career of around ten years ago opened the bowling. He and the skipper’s faith in him met with early rewards as he removed Huggins, Khalsa, and Lamb all before the total had reached forty. His 3-28 pushed his career wicket haul up to a creditable 277. The home skipper Shaylen Tomlinson-Patel and M Javed then repaired some of the damage with a fifty-three-run partnership before the visiting skipper, Phillips (1-14), dismissed his opposite number. Javed continued to hang around getting the score to 140 with the Hussains before Ollie Humphreys (2-57), retained in the starting line-up following an impressive performance last week, removed both to leave the hosts on 140 for 6. Adnan Bashir and W Ali both fell in the mid 150’s as Miguel Machado picked them both up. Javid and the tail wagged a little before Jake Raven (1-29) finally removed Javid (52 from 78 balls). Machado (3-25), another player making the return to the side, then dismissed Hussain as the innings closed on 177.

The Rams would have fifty-eight overs to knock off the runs. They lost their overseas Christy O’Brien with just eleven on the board, that man Javed (1-37) making an impact with the ball. Julius Jackson who had occupied the crease for a considerable time in last week’s match was entrusted to anchor the innings. He had enjoyed a decent partnership with Oli Borley last week, and the pair again shared  a good stand this time around. The pair added 57 this week before Borley (31 from 56) was undone by Basit-Yasin (1-34). Machado followed three runs later as the wily Bashir picked up his first wicket. Jackson and Phillips then steadied the ship before Bashir (2-38) picked up the Rams skipper with the score on ninety-five for four. Joe Latham (17 from 29), a promoted from the thirds, then added a significant 37 runs with the determined Jackson before Ali (1-24) dismissed Latham. It was beginning to look like another familiar, and winless story, when Humphreys promoted up the order following last week’s knock went first ball and then Jenkins followed one run later as the ‘wheels came off’. Tomlinson-Patel (1-18) accounted for Humphreys before Jenkins was run out with the Rams seven down and still needing another forty-two. Raven then joined Jackson and they took the score to 156 before Raven was also run out. The Rams still needed twenty-two with only third teamers Arya Saeb-Parsy and Charlie Borley left in the hutch. Would it be heartbreak again for the Rams as they chased a first victory at the fourteenth attempt? Saeb-Parsy (1 no from 7) gave Jackson solid support as the Rams got home by two wickets. The defiant and patient Jackson finished not out (82 from 171 balls) to give the Rams their first win and to move the Rams off the foot of the table. Regardless of how the rest of the season goes the side have made their mark on Rams history as this is the first time that a Rams second team has ever won a game in the Cambridgeshire and Hunts Premier One league. So, they are history makers, well done lads!

The first team faced some formidable opposition in the shape of Copdock and Old Ipswichians who were top of the EAPL, and whose colours had only been lowered in one match so far this season. The Rams were a distant sixth, some thirty-odd points adrift of the leaders. A defeat for the Rams would probably hole the Club’s title ambitions below the waterline!

In a break with ‘tradition’, skipper Dan Heath, decided to bowl on the hottest day of the summer so far. To some this was madness as Copdock are usually amongst the highest scorers in the league, season on season. However, the skipper felt that chasing gave the Rams their best chance of a win. The decision was just beginning to attract a few murmurs of disagreement and dismay amongst the Rams supporters as the prolific Sam Athurton and his in-form opening partner Nico Boje had raced to forty-seven without loss in the ninth. Both batters, but particularly Boje, were very severe with anything short or deliveries offering any width. The pair combined this with some good running to keep rotating the strike. James Vandepeer, as he often does, then made the breakthrough when he ‘luckily’ had Boje (25 from 30) strangled down the leg-side. There was nothing lucky about his second wicket when he had Athurton (25 from 31) caught behind, by Heath, with an absolute beauty with the score on fifty-eight for two. The vistors were continuing to progress at around five an over when Vandepeer removed the dangerous Alex Oxley, caught at second slip by Alex Evans. Ollie Burle and skipper Jacob Marston then steadied the ship as Vandepeer in tandem with Jack Beaumont, a pre-season capture from Copdock, slowed the scoring rate. The Copdock hundred came up at the end of the twenty-fifth. Beaumont then struck in the next over as he bowled Burle (19 from 49) with the left hander attempting an expansive shot. Marston was then joined by the experienced Chris Swallow and they batted sensibly and looked like taking the visitors through to lunch four down. Beaumont (2-43) who had been switched to Vandepeer’s end (New Road) however broke through when he bowled his former skipper (31 from 60). Swallow and Thomas Harper then saw off the remaining fifteen balls to take the visitors through to the lunch break with the score on one hundred and twenty-seven for five (after thirty-seven overs). The lunch break was extended by another twelve minutes as a shower (almost unheard of in this sparkling summer!), led to a two-over reduction for both sides.

The home side opened up with spin twins Beaumont and Guest after lunch and Copdock had progressed slowly to one hundred and forty-one (in the forty-third) when Swallow looked for a risky second run but was undone by a direct hit from Wayne White. The visitors with Luke Froggatt joining Harper dug in, but only added twenty-two (from 56 balls). Froggatt (6 from 29) then became another caught Evans bowled Vandepeer victim in the fifty-second over. Michael Rae, the Copdock overseas, led a brief counter attack as he and Harper added a brisk twenty-five runs (off just 12 balls). Vandepeer then ended the fun with Harper trapped stone dead in front with the score on one hundred and eighty-nine for eight. Vandepeer bowling superbly and getting some excellent lateral movement aided in part by the overhead conditions. Guest (1-43) then bamboozled the Kiwi (21 from 12) to bowl Rae in the fifty-sixth over. Vandepeer (6-56) then bowled fellow seamer Rajan Singh to complete his second five wicket haul in the last month as the league leaders were bundled out for one hundred and ninety-five in the fifty-ninth.

The Rams would need one hundred and ninety-six runs from sixty overs to keep them in the title race. They again opened up with the reliable pairing of White and Guest who have given the Rams some great starts since White’s belated start to the EAPL season.  They were looking like adding another fifty-run partnership to defy a challenging opening salvo from Rae and new recruit Andy Hanby who both bowled at a lively pace. White (27 from 37) fell to the imposing Rae, whose early season exploits earned him a County Championship call up at Warwickshire, with the score on forty-six when he was caught behind at the end of the tenth. When Harper had Yousuf Choudhary caught and bowled eight balls and one run later the leaders sensed an opportunity. Jack Beaumont then joined Guest and they managed to navigate a challenging period of about fifteen overs up to tea. The visitors rotated their bowling with Rae, Hanby, Harper, Swallow and Singh all striving for a breakthrough soliciting a few vociferous appeals with varying degrees of desperation. The Rams pair however brought up a fifty-run stand in just sixty-five balls before taking the Rams to three figures in the twenty-fourth over.  They reached the tea interval with the score on one hundred and sixteen at the end of twenty-seven overs.

The Rams needed another eighty runs from thirty-three overs when play resumed. The visitors would need early wickets and they again rotated their seamers from the New Road end with their spinners from the Cemetery end. The Rams pair batted with determination and clarity. Guest moved to his fifth EAPL half century this season, from eighty-six balls before he brought up a century partnership with Beaumont from one hundred and seventy-six balls. Beaumont moved to his own half-century (96 balls). The last hour, and last seventeen overs commenced with the Rams needing just another thirty-five runs. They went past the winning post with almost ten overs to spare as a boundary from Guest took him to an unbeaten eighty-six (from 143 balls) and his partner unbeaten on sixty-five (117 balls). The twenty-five points lifting the Rams back up to joint fourth in the standings.

Elsewhere a KC Cariappa inspired narrow win at Saffron Walden lifted a Mildenhall side to the top of the league just three points ahead of long-term leaders Copdock. Horsford had to settle for a draw as they narrowly failed to chase down AB Wanderers two hundred and seventy-seven and they remain third sixteen points behind the leaders. Witchingham defeated reigning champions Swardeston and they like the Rams are both twenty points adrift. Bury hung on for a draw at Witham and they now sit sixth. The basement battle saw Frinton pull off an impressive chase to record a first win of the season. Frinton remain bottom but have closed the gap on all the sides in the bottom five, who are all separated by just twenty-eight points.

A mix and match third eleven made the short trip into Cambridge to play NCI II’s in that competitive cauldron that is Junior One South. With three regulars on second team duty skipper Jake Ellis was pleased to be able to utilise Club Captain Nick Griggs, unable to get away in time for the game at Southill, and get Liam Flynn and Torin Phelps back. He also gave a senior debut to another one of our amazing youngster’s as twelve-year-old Dhrona Irinjalakudakkaran who joined fellow Rams U13 teammate Vivaan Kilaru and U15 Ethan Hayes-Fernandez. Sawston won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bat. They were given a great start as a combination of Wes Potschul (20 from 18), Flynn (44 from 47) and Niall Barber (21 from 26) propelled the Rams to eighty-three for two with Pratyush Nayak (2-47) picking up both wickets. This brought Griggs to the crease and he added twenty-two with Flynn, before the latter was undone by David Furlow (1-47). The skipper joined Griggs and they put on a match winning one hundred and three partnership taking the score to two hundred and eight for three. However, NCI struck back capturing the wickets of both as Matthew Lavender (1-46) bowled Griggs (89 from 73 balls) and William Thwaites (1-31) dismissed Ellis (25 from 37) for the addition of just four runs. Torin Phelps’ cameo (25 from 19) and Dom Cameron (19 from 24) pushed the score past the two-fifty mark before Brajesh Kumar (1-55) and Taz Islam (1-27) struck back to dismiss the Sawston pair. Dhrona struck his first senior runs (and many more to come) when he scored two of the last ball of the innings to take the total to a very formidable two hundred and sixty-one for seven.

The home reply got off to a shaky start as they lost Cameron Petrie and Hume Fisher with only seventeen on the board. Petrie was caught behind by young keeper Hayes-Fernandez off Jon Windsor (1-25) and Fisher run out by Phelps, who is clearly enjoying being free off the gloves and pads! Nathan McStay (67 from 67) upped the tempo and added fifty-one runs with opener Yash Verma (26 from 46) before Verma became Dhrona’s first senior wicket (1-38). Although being a batter Dhrona was still more pleased with his 200% strike rate! McStay then added another thirty-eight with David Furlow (16 from 32) before Griggs caught and bowled the latter. Griggs (2-27) added the wicket of Lavender ten runs later as the innings lurched to one hundred and sixteen for five and the run rate climbed. McStay and Nayak attempted to up the rate but Ellis struck two critical blows with the score on one hundred and forty when he dismissed McStay and then the dangerous Islam for a two-ball duck. Nayak (26 from 31) and skipper Ben Fawkes (16 from 12) lifted the score past the one-fifty mark before Ellis (4-51) accounted for both. Kumar (17 from 24) and Thwaites (5 from 6) pushed the total towards two hundred and another batting point but the innings closed on one hundred and ninety-three.

The fourth team couldn’t maintain the Club’s perfect record against sides from Bassingbourn as the visitors to Babraham Park gained revenge for that thrilling last ball win for the Rams a few weeks ago. The side from the Hertfordshire border are locked in a title battle, in Junior 5 s, with St. Giles. On Saturday the Rams won the toss and perhaps worried by a lack of batting decided to field. Neil Smith (73 from 65 balls) certainly enjoyed that decision and he received excellent support from his opening partner as they posted eighty-three for the first wicket. Chandan Brar (36 from 45), and Manjula Kanakaratne (23 from 30) ensured that Bassingbourn posted an imposing total of two hundred for the loss of eight wickets. Skipper Adrian Platt (4-24), and teenage debutant Arnav Wadekar (2-29) were the most successful bowlers. The other wickets also fell to our brigade of youngsters as Bill Rimmell (1-24) and in particular Richard Nicholl (1-32) returned some decent figures. Our teenage opening bowling pair of Zane Dennington and Alex Myles didn’t enjoy their usual success but both stuck to the task and got more experience under their belts.

Arnav had a senior debut to remember as he added thirty-eight runs (from 71 balls) to his impressive bowling performance. He added fifty-eight runs in an excellent opening partnership with Bill Rimmell (20 from 30). It is encouraging that these youngsters can bat for extended periods, more runs and quicker runs will follow with greater experience. Seasonal debutant Adam Hodgkisson (21 from 29) upped the ante until he was snaffled by a ‘worldy’ catch. The Sawston middle and late middle order crumbled under the scoring rate pressure and the innings needed late order runs from Trev Nicholl (13 no from 33 balls) and the skipper (18 from 28) to get the Rams a couple of additional bonus points and to respectability as the innings closed on one hundred and thirty-seven. The Holt’s Steve (3-18) and Eliza (2-11) shared five wickets and an AP added another couple as Bassingbourn shared the wickets around.

Off the field the Sponsors and Supporters were royally entertained by Louise Ellis and the ‘Hospitality’ team. Two lots of lunches and a tea on the hottest day of the summer is quite some effort. We were also joined by Lisa and David Ratcliffe who are the driving force behind the Rams 2024 Charity Just George. They told us about the loss of their little boy George and how his experiences have encouraged them to set up this Charity in his name to hopefully improve the future treatment of childhood cancer sufferers.