Almost a perfect day!

The Rams had three sides in action on Saturday. The first team were defending their 2025 unbeaten run against Bury St. Edmunds whom themselves were one of the other sides still unbowed to date in this year’s competition.

The visitors won the toss and decided to bat. That decision was looking a disaster and terminal to their hopes as early as the thirteenth over as Bury found themselves at eighteen for six! Sawston’s skipper Callum Guest, who passed a pre-match fitness test following last week’s injury, astonishingly captured five of the six wickets to fall.  James Vandepeer picked up the other. Bowling as well as batting is very often about partnerships and despite the unequal rewards both deserve equal credit for applying and maintaining the pressure. As I say, partnerships are vital, and the one between Justin Bishop and Alex Cruickshank certainly was. The pair managed to see off both the opening bowlers, with Guest finishing with figures of 10-6-7-5 and Vandepeer (1-28 from ten excellent overs), before steering the visitors to forty-six for six at drinks. Bury’s fifty eventually came up eight balls later. The partnership continued and remarkably in the context of what had gone before the pair reached a half century stand (from 93 balls). They added just three more runs when Yousuf Choudhary at first juggled and then hung onto a catch off the bowling of Mark Smith (1-60) to end the resistance of Bishop (22 from 68 deliveries). Cruickshank found a new ally in Ben Whittaker and they saw Bury into three figures at the middle of the thirty-fourth over. The Rams had their two left-arm spinners George Darlow and Tarun Mouli (1-39) in tandem and it was the latter, that struck next, he bowled the fluent Whittaker (25 from 27 balls) with the score on one hundred and sixteen for eight. Twelve more runs were added before Cruickshank’s stubborn resistance was ended in a tight run-out. The former Mildenhall player had batted impressively scoring an excellent forty-five (from 85 balls). The Rams seam attack got a bit over excited and lost a bit of discipline and allowed Oliver Riddick, in at ten, a few cheap boundaries. The last pair Riddick and Thomas Davey added an invaluable forty-eight runs from the last forty-three balls. Bishop, Cruickshank, Riddick  and the late order had incredibly added one hundred and fifty-eight runs (for three wickets in just over thirty-seven overs as the innings closed on one hundred and seventy-six for nine.

The Rams reply stuttered initially as Choudhary, Guest and Ethan Rice (28 from 36) as Ben Whittaker and Tom Rash (2-36) reduced the Rams to fifty-one for three. Rash like Vandepeer bowled from the Cemetery End and both deserved more luck for excellent spells. The Rams first fifty came of just sixty-eight balls. Lee Thomason joined his Cambridgeshire teammate Ben Claydon and the pair in their second significant partnership of the season added seventy-one match clinching runs (from 103 deliveries). Their fifty partnership was added from just sixty-two balls, and taking the Rams through to three figures in the twenty-third over. Thomason looked like he had survived the curse of drinks when he was smartly snaffled down the leg-side by keeper Alex Maynard standing-up to the bowling of Bishop (1-29). Claydon then moved onto his third consecutive half-century of the season (from 63 balls). In common with last week Claydon was dismissed soon after reaching his latest milestone when he attempted to hit Whittaker (2-44) over the top, in the bowler’s last over, but only succeeded in finding the hands of Cruikshank. At one hundred and thirty-two for five the Rams needed another forty-five runs with almost twenty overs remaining. Any slight doubts were soon extinguished as Henry Wilson and Ben Clilverd (17 not out), batted at first watchfully before opening up. The teenager Wilson gave the home fans their first extended view of his talents, following his first half-century for the Club away last week, he batted in an assured manner before ending the match with a triple boundary salvo (including two maximums) as the Rams won by five wickets in the thirty-ninth and he finished on twenty-eight not out (from 32 balls).

This result took the Rams to twelve wins on the trot and eighteen unbeaten, it also gave them three on the trot this year whilst ending Bury’s unbeaten 2025 run. Sudbury (at Copdock) and Downham Stow (at Swardeston) both recorded impressive wins to join the Rams as the only unbeaten sides in EAPL 25. Mildenhall after once again squandering a winning position lost at home to Frinton. AB Wanderers joined Mildenhall and Swardeston as the only three winless sides when they lost to Norfolk rivals Horsford. Whilst a few may have predicted a top three of Downham Stow, SBCC and Sudbury I’m confident that no one had Mildenhall and Swardeston in the bottom two in their predictions! In the other result Witchingham got their season underway by beating Witham.

The Rams second string travelled to Ramsey to face the Cambs and Hunts Onyx Premier League reigning champions and 2025 title favourites. The home side won the toss and decided to bat. The Rams then put in a superb performance with the ball and in the field as SBCC overseas Darcy Murphy again made a couple of early breakthroughs. This was followed a short-time later by another brace from spinner Jake Raven (2-30). At fifty-five for four with Michael Cafferkey, Wayne Bradley, Taylor West and Ben Saunder’s back in the hutch the visitors were pleased with their work. This joy was increased when Sean Ward picked up Liam Gaynor’s wicket just six runs later. Mark Saunders and Elliot Cafferkey then doubled the score taking it to one hundred and twenty-nine for six following a vital sixty-eight run partnership. Murphy returned to the attack to remove Saunders (48 from 100 balls) before Julius Jackson dismissed Oliver Stevens for a first ball duck to leave the home side precariously placed at one hundred and thirty for seven. Murphy (4-27) dismissed Thomas Dancy and Miguel Machado (1-18) bowled George Buckle before Henry Cotton ran out Sandun Madushanka to end the innings on one hundred and fifty-nine. This left Elliot Cafferkey stranded on forty-five not out (from 77 deliveries).

In echoes of last week and the first part of the 2024 season Sawston’s batting once again failed spectacularly as none of their batsmen could register a double-digit score. It was clear from the Ramsey innings that it was a difficult track to get ‘in’ on but once there you could score decent runs. The Rams however failed to get anyone established as they were undone by the spin of Michael Cafferkey (4-10) and overseas Madushanka (6-20). Only Matt Ellis 5 not out was able to resist as the visitors were hustled out for just forty-seven. On the bright side if we’d been offered ten points at the start of the game, particularly after losing the toss, we’d have taken them.

The third team started their league campaign with a tricky looking tie against the Chesterfords, a side that were relegated into Junior One from the Senior league last year. The Rams skipper Jake Ellis has assembled a talented and deep squad for this campaign and they should be able to withstand the usual strains on availability sometimes caused by the squads above. Ellis was given a selection nightmare this week as he had a very strong squad of fifteen or sixteen to choose from.

Chesterfords won the toss and opted to bat at Babraham. This match was also the first league match under our new Head Curator at Babraham, Steve Tovey. The wicket has an excellent reputation and Steve’s first strip lived up to that. The visitors made an excellent start with opener R Laird leading the way. However the introduction of Arnav Wadekar, a fifteen-year-old, who had a few games in the fourths last year but impressed his new skipper during the Winter, paid immediate dividends as he snared Morland and Thake. Ellis (2-32) then picked up the scalps of Wood and Taylor as the pair picked up four wickets for thirty-five to reduce the visitors from thirty-two without loss to sixty-seven for four. The innings was in the balance but Laird received excellent support from Hyde (30 from 48 balls) as the pair added an important eighty-one runs. However the home side then struck three critical blows as Hyde, Jones and Wheeler were all dismissed for the addition of just a couple of runs. Opening bowler Ollie Humphreys (2-32) returned to pick up a brace and Wadekar added another. Laird and Deol than combined to add twenty-nine runs as the Chesterfords went in search of a challenging total. Wadekar however struck a crucial blow, to record his best bowling performance in adult cricket, when he dismissed Laird just after he had reached his ton in a fantastic knock (102 from 125 deliveries). B Wood and Deol followed soon after as debutant Nuwan Athukorala picked up his first wicket (1-42) and Wadekar his fifth (5-42) for his first ever five-fa in open age cricket. The total of one hundred and ninety-two was challenging but not daunting.

The Rams opened up with Wes Potschul and Ben Benson. This pair hold the Club record of three hundred and sixteen (undefeated) scored a number of years ago when they both played for the firsts. They obviously like batting together, although it’s been a few years since they appeared together, it was like old times  as they raced to a seventy-eight-run partnership. Benson who has only played nine games since 2022 fell for forty-two (from 46 balls) as Rawat (1-26) made the breakthrough. Potschul was then joined by Robbie Matthews, again a familiar face with them playing for a number of years together in the firsts and seconds. This was Matthew’s first game back since 2022. He was quickly into top gear as he and Potschul added one hundred and two for the second wicket. Potschul (62 from 70 balls) then fell with the winning line in site, bowled by Wheeler (1-26). Matthews and thirteen-year-old Dhrona Irinalakudakkaran then saw the Rams over the line. Matthews finished unbeaten on sixty-five (from just 48 deliveries) as SBCC won by eight wickets with twelve overs to spare. A fantastic team performance to start the season.