Full steam ahead!

The season starts in earnest for the Club as our lower league sides start their 2023 programs on Saturday.

This means we have four sides out for the first time this season on Saturday. Just to make it a little more difficult there is also a stag party or two to heap extra strain on our playing resources. Taking top billing for this week will be our third team led by Jake Ellis who has overseen their meteoric rise from Division Four into Junior One for the first time in the team’s history, following a well trodden path that started with the first team playing in Division Four in 1992! He has new signings Niall Barber, Ollie Humphreys and James Petzer all making competitive debuts, and will have the usual mix of youth and experience to back them up. Staying in this division will be the initial target for the skipper. They commence their program with a difficult looking trip to NCI II’s, grateful that its not on Parkers Pieces!

The first team aim to get their season back on track following their first fifty over defeat in sixteen consecutive matches stretching back to August 2021. They face a difficult trip to one of the pre-season favourites Great Witchingham, who have always been there or thereabouts in recent seasons.

The Witches have strength at the top of the order with Yaseen Valli and James Spelman. Valli a first class cricketer from South Africa is a consistent run scorer and finished second in the EAPL runs chart just ahead of Callum Guest. They will be looking to the likes of Drew Beazleigh to build on an impressive debut season last year, and for new recruit James Hale to make an impact. Skipper Andy Hanby will again spearhead the bowling attack, the Norfolk bowler was the top seamer in EAPL 2022, and he will again look for support from Charlie Rogers. With the loss of Trewick in the winter they will be hoping that Brett Stolworthy returns to fitness this week. To make the challenge even more difficult the Witches will be chomping at the bit following two defeats in the first two weeks.

The Rams make three changes for the visit to Walcis Park. Out go the unavailable Noah Thain and Alex Stafford, with Yousuf Choudhary dropping down. In come Matthew Hague, and the returning Charlie Lewis (football) and Ben Clilverd (football injury!). A defeat has been a rare commodity over the last five years and the squad will be wanting to avoid that almost unknown back to back defeat experience. Pre-season there was confidence that the batting line up would be as strong as any other in the league but confidence is a fragile commodity. However, the top six should bare in mind the old adage ‘form is temporary class is permanent’ as they seek to get their season underway.

New second team skipper Ant Phillips is able to name a pretty handy side despite and a number of absentees and losing Hague from his side last week. Choudhary comes in for a second team debut, and is joined by Nick Griggs and Matthew Day who make seasonal debuts. Griggs, the former skipper, is depressed to find out that he’s the oldest player in the side! at Spicers. The Rams will be looking for back to back victories against newly promoted sides following their seven wicket win against Biggleswade. Godmanchester are rebuilding and are steadily moving back up through the leagues as the seek to revisit some of their rich recent history that saw them in the top echelons of the EAPL until quite recently.

Unlike Biggleswade, who we previously played a couple of years back, ‘Goddy’ are a completely unknown challenge. Although their skipper Elliot Baldwin will be well known to Griggs. Looking at the stats from 2022 Austin, Lemmon and Luck were consistent run scorers. Last year Goddy had James Sykes, the ex-Leicestershire and now Cambridgeshire slow left armer in the squad quite regularly but he missed last week. They suffered a six wicket defeat at Saffron Walden on debut in Whitings Two, where another slow left armer Steven Atherton (an old Ram) picked up 4-18. Jake Raven will be hoping that they have not been working hard in the nets to combat the threat of left arm orthodox spin.

Finally, the Rams Fourth team will be facing a familiar foe when they meet their Camborne counterparts in Division Five. Both teams have enjoyed a number of recent matches between them in the last three or so years. The Rams kick of their season at Babraham where the facilities, both inside and out, have been freshened up over the last few weeks. The SBCC fourth string ethos will again be to blood as many youngsters into adult cricket as possible and for the more experienced players to fit in around them.