Busy weekend ahead!

As we enter week thirteen of EAPL 25 the top of the table has a very familiar look as the Rams, Horsford and Copdock all currently stand on the podium; you may remember that on the last day of EAPL 24 it was any of these three sides that could have been crowned champions on the final day in September.

The very in-form Horsford, who have had two very early finishes in the last fortnight have a home tie against Witham, who themselves are perhaps in their best patch of form for a while. Copdock travel to Bury who have struggled in recent weeks. Mildenhall’s recent resurgence will be tested at home to Downham; and the highly unpredictable pair of Witchingham and Frinton meet in Norfolk. The other tie sees Swardeston, hoping for better availability and luck with injuries, face Sudbury who need a win to re-ignite their stuttering challenge.

That leaves the Rams, who are defending, a handy but not decisive, twenty-three-point lead face AB Wanderers. The Norfolk side will be wanting to back up last week’s first win of the season. Nuwan Jayasena with five wickets and Tommy Chambers, promoted from the seconds, with four scalps were the heroes for the Norfolk side last week. Despite the poor run they have two batters who both have scored more than five hundred league runs so far in this campaign; Zak Tribe and Mitchell Van Buuren. Incidentally I think they both have brothers at first class counties. Joe Everett and Josh Larner have again spearheaded the attack with Van Buuren and Jayasena chipping in.

The Rams more nervous fans may remember that last year’s red ball game was reduced down to seventy overs following more rain on the Saturday after a pretty wet week. In a very dull ending to the game the scores ended up tied! The Rams make a couple of changes following last week’s defeat at Witham, in come George Darlow and Henry Wilson at the expense of Tarun Mouli and one of Cambridgeshire’s T20 heroes Yousuf Choudhary.

The second team travel to Caldecote, not the best place to visit on a scorching afternoon, to meet St.Giles who had a very comfortable win over Foxton Granta last week. They are one of the sides looking to battle it out for fourth. They are in decent nick having won four and drawn one of there last five. Like many sides in this division, including the Rams, much depends on player availability; as sides can look like champion material one week and relegation fodder the next! They may feature one or possibly two of ex-Ram Noah Thain’s brothers; Sam the eldest who captains St. Giles and Rueben, the youngest, who is also on the EPP program at Essex. In a quirk of the fixtures this is actually the team’s first meeting of the 2025 campaign.  Skipper Dan Heath will be delighted to have increased options with bat and ball as heretains Ethan Rice; and also to pick up Yousuf Choudhary and Tarun Mouli from the first team. There is also a seasonal debut for Josh Jordan. Last week’s bowling hero Jaykishan Plaha will hope to follow up his first five-fa for the Club. Elsewhere, in the Onyx Premier leaders Burwell have a tricky tie away at Eaton Socon and the Rams will hope that second placed Walden can do them a favour by beating Old Leysians.

The Rams third team face a tricky tie at home to Rickling Ramblers; but find their resources stretched again with Matthew Ellis’ wedding impacting on the back up squad. Although not a one man side the Rams will perhaps hope that Josh Monk is unavailable this week, this year he is only averaging one hundred and four  (2024 – 216!). He warmed up last week with seventy-five not out and five for eleven with the ball as the Ramblers made it three wins on the spin and moved into third spot in the table. Dhrona returns to the thirds to join his County U-13 colleague Etienne Lamb after his promising debut last week. Zane Dennington after an impressive campaign for the fourths gets another opportunity to impress third team skipper Jake Ellis. The skipper will have been pleased to retain the services of another youngster Ethan Hayes Fernandez and to welcome back U-15 Arnav Wadekar.

The fourth team face a long an arduous trip to Stapleford!, hoping to put three successive defeats behind them. They welcome back wily off-spinner Adrian Platt and youngster Ethan Cashmore retains his place after an impressive debut last week. Amit Nair, makes a welcome return to cricket after a good few years out; his enthusiasm perhaps rekindled by his son starting his own Rams journey. The veteran Jeff Free also retains his place but his darts partner Nick Wright is unavailable.

The only other notable match on Saturday sees Tanya Puk finally make an honest man of her long-time partner Matthew Ellis, best of luck to them both and we hope they have a special day.

On Sunday the first’s travel to Barton Turf, the home of Saturday’s opponents AB Wanderers as they attempt to retain their EAPL T20 title that they won for the first time last year. A good omen is that they won it at the same venue. This year’s finals day round robin also features AB Wanderers and Sudbury.